Alanna the Granddaughter
by Jinx0993
Summary: Alanna heads to Tortall, why did the Lioness leave Tortall? She didn't... I'm talking about Alanna Aly's daughter. Confused yet? Rating might change later in story
1. Packing

This is a new story… I decided not to continue Kalica, I started writing that one a few years ago and my writing has grown since then. It would be hard to continue that story, so I started a new one.

A black-haired, nine year old streaked through the palace. Bare-footed, she ran with the wide strides of someone who was trained how to run. Her sarong hitched up so that the bottom, which normally hit mid-calf, was at mid-thigh. She laughed when a group of luarin nobles pressed themselves against the wall to get out of her way, they yelled after her to slow down and walk like a lady.

The girl slipped behind a tapestry. The hidden passage behind it led to her rooms. She had her own bedroom, walk-in closet, sitting area, study and bathroom. When she had turned seven Queen Dove had given the girl the rooms, before she had had a room connected to her parents'.

The sitting area was painted tan with two black leather sofas arranged around a fire place with three matching cushy chairs. Bookshelves lined two of the four walls. The third wall was painted with different forest and animals, from the smallest of the winged-horses to the biggest of the bears. They looked real enough to be real. And if you watched very carefully you could see kits rolling in the shadows, a mother bear leading her cubs threw the trees, and a herd of winged-horses grazing near the lake. Things were rarely the same from day to day.

Off of the sitting room was her bed room. The walls were made from a wood so light that it was almost white; it also had gold vine-like designs. The bed was made from a black wood and had silver and sapphire sheets and quilt on it. A robe hung next the bed. One wall held a huge weapons rack. The rack had many different weapons on it; a short blue tinged sword with a sapphire in the hilt hung from two hooks above a long black sword with royal blue patterns on the blade also with a sapphire in the hilt, which in turn, lay above a plain looking medium length sword with a brown hilt and no jewels in it, and at least fifty different daggers of all shapes and sizes and different designs in their hilts from jewel incrusted to plain as can be hung in their sheaths in straight lines. Also there were four different bows from all over the world; a Yamani bow that was made from a cherry sapling was a beautiful red color, a traditional short bow of a dark wood, a long bow of a light colored wood, a bow made of a special horn that was soaked first in a special potion then enchanted so it would be flexible but very strong, and the last bow looked very delicate and precious, and it was, the girl had made it by herself with her magic. They too lay on two hooks each in a straight up and down line. Matching quivers hung next to them. A _naginata_ or glaive that was as beautiful as it was deadly lay on three hooks, also a 'seemingly' innocent staff lay next to it, 'seemingly' being the keyword because when twisted in the middle two one foot blades extended from the handle.

A chest of drawers sat beneath the weapons rack, in it there was the quivers that matched the bows above it and different bow strings of varying strengths that were organized in their own box that were numbered, the higher the number the stronger the string. Sheaths for daggers that could be placed anywhere on the body sat in a different drawer, all organized in a way that only the girl could figure out which sheath matched which dagger and spot on her body. The last drawer held all the different cleaning and sharpening materials needed.

The closet sat between her bed and weapons rack. In the closet there were many clothes. Dresses, shirts, and trousers from Tortall, and a few different styled burnooses. Tight and loose fitting kimonos and menswear from the Yamani Islands and different covers for her _shukusens,_ the deadly fans that the ladies carry. Flowing dresses and menswear from Carthak and many other designs from the surrounding countries.

The bathroom was behind the closet so to get to the bathroom you had to walk through the closet. It had a bathtub that was built into the floor. The vanity with a small tub sitting on it for washing hands sat in the corner with a towel warmer next to it. The room was a blue color and had paintings of fish and oceans on every wall.

Back to the girl, she raced through her bedroom to her closet and pulled trunks out from beneath the hanging clothes in there. The clothes were sorted by what country would wear them and then by gender if there were too many to fit in just one trunk. Then she pulled the six trunks into her bedroom and then grabbed two more trunks. She carefully wrapped up two of her swords and put them in patted wood containers that she placed in the bottom of one of the trunks, but kept the black one out. All of her knives but two wrist blades, two daggers that fit in her boots, a belt knife, a small thin dagger that would fit into a barrette, and a blade that had a long leather cord that would slip under her shirt, were carefully wrapped up and each one was put into it's own patted wood box and stacked up inside the other trunk. There were so many daggers that they got their own trunk. Three of the four bows were put into boxes and packed on top of the swords, the bow that stayed out was the delicate looking one. The three quivers matching the bows were topped and placed on top of the bows, the last quiver was placed on the bed next to its' bow. She carefully picked out one bow string and put it on the bed, the other strings were packed into the trunk over the quivers. Those almost finished filling that trunk. What finished it were the tools used for taking care of all the weapons the girl used. The glaive and double-bladed staff were slid into long tubes that were made of a thick but light bark, the same bark made the top that was put on it. Those were put so that they rested on the tops of both the trunks.

She giggled quietly to herself; her mom had finally agreed to let her go to Tortall and live with her grandmother and namesake, Alanna the Lioness. Alanna the Younger, or Lanna as she was often called, glanced around her room.

AN: I know that this chapter is mostly description but I think it will be necessary for later…I think, not completely sure since I have no clue where this story is going, it seems to be writing itself and I'm just the one that's typing it… and posting it.


	2. Peter and Goodbyes

Hey y'all, I was reading the first two chapters of this story again and I realised that I had named the horses different names in the third chapter, so I switched them in this chapter cuz I liked the second names better. So this chapter has been changed to match the third chapter.

Lanna's room looked almost bare; the weapons that were recently packed away where the only thing's that had decorated the walls. The only color in the room was now that the bed's sheets and quilt. She stacked the clothing trunks by twos and dragged those out to the sitting room. The weapon trunks had to be pulled out separately being too heavy for her to pull together. In the sitting room she opened all the trunks once again and started pulling her favorite books off the shelves. Only five of the books were poetry or short stories, the rest, around fifteen of them, were instruction books. They covered everything from the Gift to Wild Magic and animals, different types of weapons to how to create them, healing to the different ethnics and their customs.

Cursing quietly to herself in Kyprish, she walked to her study. Her study was just off of her sitting room but also connected to her bedroom. Next to the desk was a small box, she opened the top. Inside there were different compartments. Three empty pens (the old fashioned ones, like calligraphy pens) were placed upside down in a vertical square (a pencil holder, you might use an old washed out can), pieces of parchment were stacked and put into a rectangular compartment with a few scrolls on top of them, sticks of charcoal and chalk were piled into another rectangle, wax spheres rolled around in their own square, and Lanna's personal seal -a crow with its' wings spread, two swords crossed behind it, and a bow with an arrow nocked pointing up over it- on a stamp had its' own small box. That filled the multi-compartment box. Lanna looked over her desk one last time; she grabbed the portrait of her family off of her family off of the top and folded the stand of the frame into the back, then placed it on top of the box, and picked up the box and carried it to the sitting room. She then grabbed the picture and opened a clothing trunk. Lanna picked a few of the top clothes and placed the frame on the remaining clothes then replaced what she took out, creating a cushioning so that the glass wouldn't break. She then shut the top and locked it with a key that hung around her neck, walking around to all the trunks and locking them with the key. Suddenly the door opened, Lanna jumped and pulled two knives from her wrists.

Aly's hands went up, "Relax Daughter. It's just me."

"Well don't scare me like that. You of all people should know that, you taught me to always be careful," Lanna shrugged and replaced the daggers in their sheaths.

"True, I did teach you that, however, you still have much to learn. Awareness is key; you should not have been surprised that easily." Aly raised one eyebrow, "My grandfather should be able to help you with that, he taught me everything I know, but he didn't teach me everything he knows."

Lanna grinned at the mention of her grandfather, "Good, I wish to know everything, just think Mom, a spy-knight. I'll be the best there is."

Aly smiled at her only daughter, "Yes I'm sure you will be. You're all packed?" Lanna nodded. "Good, go help your brother. You know he can't pack to save his life. I'll have some servants carry these to your wagon."

Lanna smirked and started walking toward the door. "Wait," Aly called, "I meant to give you something." She grabbed the basket that she had left at the door. "These are for you; to keep or to give to your friends I don't care." Lanna took off the cover, a bunch of darklings sat in the basket. At Lanna's suspicious look, Aly added, "They will not report to me, when you leave they will only be loyal to you, though I did give one to Peter. We can talk over them but I won't use them to spy."

"Thank you, this means a lot Momma." Lanna said, then turned her back and left her sitting room for the last time.

Aly gazed around, then walked out to the hall and called a few servants to her. Ordering them to take the trunks to the stables, she left and didn't look back.

* * *

Peter was throwing clothes into the two trunks he had opened when Lanna walked into the room. "Now, Brother Dear, you should know that just tossing clothes into the trunks you'll never get anything packed," she said as she leaned against the door frame.

The boy jumped and spun taking to daggers out of the sheaths at his wrists, "Anna don't do that!" He used the nickname he had for her.

His twin just grinned at him, "I had that same reaction when Mom came to see me. She sent me to help you pack since I'm all down. Stand aside messy boy." Lanna pushed her brother away and pulled everything out of the trunks. Since he was a boy he had far less clothes, there were still things from everywhere in the world but only in male clothing, and that took up less room than the bulky dresses Lanna had packed for herself. She then folded everything nicely and stacked them into the trunks. "Really you should know better than that, Mom's drilled into your head that everything has its place and that it should be there. That way you'll know if someone has been in your room." Lanna scolded Peter.

Her brother just rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to be a spy, Little Sister." Lanna growled at that, he was only three minutes older! Peter smirked, "I don't need to know if someone has been in my stuff, I'll be a knight and that's it."

Lanna just rolled her eyes; he was as bad as her. They were both got in trouble for spying and sneaking around that palace. Him more than her but still he spied, they couldn't help it, it was in the blood that ran through their veins. "Whatever you say, Peter." She glanced around, "I trust your weapons are packed?"

Peter nodded, "Already at the stables."

"Good, let's go." Lanna and Peter each grabbed a trunk, towed them out of the room, then they looked at each other, and rolled their eyes. They grabbed the ends of one trunk and placed it on the other. The twins then grabbed the handles on the bottom trunk and lifted. They walked sideways as neither was good at walking backwards. When they reached the stables they gently placed the trunks on the ground. Two servants came up and took the trunks over to Peter's carriage. The twins glanced at each other then walked into the stables and split to go to their horses' stalls. Lanna went to a black mare, Cinta, she had raised from birth. Nearly five years old now the horse would protect Lanna with her life, Cinta loved Lanna and would do anything to make the girl happy. Peter's stallion, Keberanian, or Keb for short had the same feelings for his master.

Lanna talked quietly with Cinta about Tortall and the new adventures they would have, as the girl brushed the horse and then packed the curry combs, hard brushes, soft brushes, hoof picks, and combs into a specially made trunk, this trunk had different compartments for each brush and one big enough for the saddle that Gunapi was not wearing. Lanna had had each saddle that was for Cinta specially made for her back. There were three of them; a brown Western saddle, a side saddle, and a jousting saddle. The Western saddle went into the trunk and the others were put into their own wood boxes. Lanna then carried a few different bridles and placed them in the trunk, and shut it. She took a sapphire halter with black lead off of its hook and placed it on Cinta. The horse tossed its head, saying, "I don't need that, I stay with you."

Lanna looked up at the horse, "I know, but it makes the humans feel better."

Aly walked in and saw that the two siblings had everything ready. "It's time," she said simply before she walked out.

The four beings in the stable looked at each other and nodded in unison. "Time," Peter whispered, all of them knowing that a lot of time would pass before they could return to the Copper Isles, if they ever did.

Aly and Nawat hugged their two oldest children good-bye after they had hooked the horses up to the covered wagons that held all their stuff, the wagons would come with. "Be careful, my nestlings," Nawat whispered, then added, "and listen to your teachers. It won't be good if you don't."

A few tears escaped Aly's eyes, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do. And learn, learn everything you can. It will be disastrous if you don't," then she grinned, "But have fun. It's not an adventure if there is no fun involved."

The twins, because of the fact that their father was People, had Wild Magic. This was one of the reasons that Aly and Nawat said that they could go to Tortall, Daine was in that country and she was the only expert on Wild Magic. Another reason was because the twins also had the Gift, something unheard of. To have the Gift and Wild Magic had not happened before; also Aly's Sight had also been passed on. Nawat and Aly decided that the safest place for Lanna and Peter to be was Tortall because of Daine, Numair, and Alanna would be there to protect them. The siblings also needed to be trained, they had only basic training at the moment, it was a wonder that the palace hadn't blown up with the power that the two held.

Peter and Lanna boarded the ship and waved good-bye to their parents, friends, and birth country.


	3. Port Caynn

AN: Sorry it's been so long. I don't remember when I last updated but I do know it was a long time ago. It's been rather busy round here, I actually wrote the first part of this chapter after I posted the last chapter, but then I hit writer's block and I didn't have time to try to get rid of it. I want to thank TheWackedOne for being the first, and only person so far to review. So thank you TheWackedOne!

Sighing, Lanna looked out over the blue ocean and blue sky. She was bored. And a bored Lanna was never good; her brother had already taken shelter in the small cabin he was given when they had boarded the ship. It would take three days to get to Tortall but only one and a half had passed. Lanna had already cleaned all of her weapons…twice. She paced from the starboard side of the boat to the port side. The sailors watched her carefully, they learned after the first hour to stay away from her. The annoyed girl started muttering to herself, "Day and a half left! I'm going to die of boredom. There's nothing to do!"

"Oh I don't know about that Little One," a man said as he leaned on the railing closet to where Lanna was pacing.

She jumped, "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm the captain of the ship, Kito at your service." Kito said, and then pushed himself off of the railing, "And you could help the sailors, I can teach you what you need to do to sail a ship."

Lanna thought about it for a minute, "That sounds like fun. It wouldn't hinder you or the other sailors?"

And so the rest of the trip Lanna helped sail the ship. It kept her entertained and out of trouble. A bonus in everyone's books.

* * *

"Lanna! Hold still!" Peter called from the doorway of Lanna's cabin on the ship where Lanna was currently jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. Peter walked into the room and placed his hands on his sister's shoulders trying to hold her down.

She ducked out of her brother's hold and skipped out of the room, "Never!" She yelled, "We're almost there! I can't wait!" The man up in the crow nest had spotted land two hours ago and Lanna hadn't been able to sit still since.

The girl raced through the ship's interior, and burst through the door onto the deck. The sailors openly laughed as Lanna slid to a stop just before the railing of the ship at the front. She brushed her straight, black hair out of her face and look into the horizon, trying to see the sliver of land that she knew was there. "Hello Kito," she said without looking behind her.

The captain looked puzzled, "How did you know it was me?"

Lanna glanced back, "Your foot steps. Everyone's are different." She grinned then, "I can tell everyone on this ship apart by their steps, now if you'll excuse me," the nine year old sidled past, "I have to pack."

* * *

An hour after the two had talked the ship entered the harbor at Port Caynn. Lanna stood up from the crouch she was in, and flipped the two daggers in her hands into their sheaths at her wrists. The sailor she was sparing with took advantage of her distraction and lunged at the girl's side. Lanna spun, knocking the man's wrist out of the way so that he didn't stab her beneath her ribs, though everyone knew that he would have stopped just short of breaking skin. "Well that was rude," Lanna said, then added, "but smart, I would have done the same." The group of sailors surrounding the two laughed, and then quickly got to work readying the boat to anchor. Lanna ran to the stern of the ship (I think the means the front, I'm not good with ships), she looked out over the harbor and grinned when she saw the ropes being thrown from the ship to the docks. She raced to the few stalls in the barrel of the ship, grabbed her horse's halter, and stepped into the stall, "Hey Girl."

'Girl' snorted, "Are we finally getting off this death trap?"

"Yes," Lanna said, then added, "Hold still, I have to get you tacked up." Lanna slipped the halter onto her horse, Cinta. She led the black mare out of the stall and wrapped the lead rope around a post. Lanna grabbed the box with brushes in it; she picked a rubber curry comb out of it and started the work of grooming Cinta. When her horse was all brushed Lanna pulled over the wagon with her trunks in it, she placed the harness just behind Cinta's shoulders, wrapped the girth around her stomach, and cinched it tight. Lanna pulled the shoulder straps around Cinta's front legs, and secured them to the girth.

The wagon was hooked up to the harness by two wooden posts, and Lanna's eight (six full of clothes and two with weapons) trunks were placed in it, Peter's four (two with clothes and two with weapons) were in there too. Cinta's and Peter's horse's saddle boxes were put in there too. Cinta had three saddles; a jousting saddle, a sidesaddle, and a regular saddle. All of those boxes were full. Peter's horse had only two; a jousting saddle and a regular saddle; the regular saddle's box was currently empty as Peter was going to be riding. Lanna then secured the canvas over the trunks and pulled it tight with the cords that ran through the covering and round holes drilled into the wood of the wagon. A small seat was attached to the front of the wagon. When everything was ready Lanna replaced Cinta's halter with a bridle and slipped the halter underneath the seat. She jumped up onto the bench and picked up the reins. Cinta started walking up the ramp to the main deck. Peter met them on the deck with his horse, Keberanian, or Keb for short. Keb was a very strong war horse, Peter always said he needed a horse just for running but Keb wouldn't hear of it, it didn't really matter anyway because Keb could keep up with the horses bred for running. The siblings nodded at each other and walked the horses up to the ramp that was set up to the deck. Peter and Keb went down first then Lanna and Cinta headed down.

The two siblings and their horses set off to find a spy of their mother's. The spy had agreed to give them a place to stay for the night and to help them exchange their Kyprish money for Tortallan gold. Their grandparents didn't know the twins were coming. Well the grandparents knew that their grandchildren would come eventually, but they didn't know exactly when. It was one Aly's and Lanna's biggest successes, keeping the Whisper Man from learning the plans of his grandchildren. He kept an annoyingly close watch on the two, he always knew when they were travelling and always knew where they were in the Copper Isles. But when Lanna decided that their visit would be a surprise for Tortall plans were made so that George would think they were going to the Yamani Islands, again. The twins enjoyed going to the Islands, Lanna was taught how to use a glaive there and both siblings learned the Yamani bow. Lanna also learned how to use a _shukusen_, both as a deadly weapon and as a lady's fan.

Lanna had her hair half up half down, the part that was up was braided and fell down her back. Her hair was straight and hit her waist; in the braid was a leather strap with metal spikes. If she got in a fight and someone grabbed her hair he or she would be in for a nasty surprise. She wore black leggings with a black shirt and a sapphire tunic that hit her at mid-thigh. She also had a sapphire cloak on with its hood up; the girl didn't feel like having people sneer at her for wearing boy's clothes. Peter was similarly dressed but he didn't have on leggings, he had on long trousers, and his tunic and cloak was an emerald color. Both wore black leather shoes, Peter's hit just under his ankles while Lanna's hit mid-calf. They both also had on black fingerless leather gloves. One of Peter's swords sat at his hip and his bow was unstrung in the quiver that was specially made to fit both a bow and arrows in it, the bow's string was in a waterproof bag at his hip on the opposite side as his sword. Daggers sat on the wrists, ankles, thighs, and on the backs of the siblings. Lanna's sword sat next to her on the bench of the wagon, her bow and quiver were under the canvas, within easy reach of the girl though. A glaive was also within reach of the girl, though she did have to lean a little bit, and that annoyed her.

Lanna checked to make sure none of her hair was sticking out of her hood and followed her brother to the safe house. While they were in Port Caynn Lanna would act as Peter's servant. So therefore she had to masquerade as a boy, while Peter was a rich merchant boy. In Tortall rich families made sure that each child had their own servant, and because of that most ended up best friends because they had spent their lives together. Lanna made sure never to let her brother out of her sight, they may have been in a new country but that didn't give them permission to slack off. They were careful of everything, never letting their purses leave their sides and keeping a sharp eye out. Peter led the way to a safe house on the outskirts of the dock; the house was in the upper neighbor hood, safely away from the poorer parts of the city. It was painted white and had a well kept courtyard that had some beautiful flowers and trails that led to benches, swings, and one led to the dirt clearing that the two stopped at when they got there. Lanna got down from the wagon and walked up to the door, she knocked twice and said, "The Cunning One's twins are in Yamani."

Her mom's spy opened the slot in the door, "And yet here they stand," he replied. They both smiled at each other, "Take your horses to the stables, I'll meet you there." The slot slide close and Lanna heard foot steps leading away from the front door.

She walked over to her brother and Cinta, "Come on," Lanna grabbed Cinta's reins right below her chin strap and led her horse and brother into the stable. There both siblings started quickly untacking the sweat soaked horses. Peter undid all of the straps holding the saddle and packs onto Keb. The horse stood patiently as he waited for his friend to get the grooming supplies and start brushing him down. Cinta however was less patient. She pranced around until Lanna was forced to tie her to a hitching post, "Stop moving!" She snapped. When Lanna undid the straps holding the wagon onto Cinta, the two siblings pulled it to the side of the door. Lanna then got out the brushes, hoof pick, and mane combs. Lanna began the task of grooming Cinta till all the sweat was gone from her body.

That was when their host walked through the back stable doors, "I see your horses are taken care of. You can put them in the two stalls there. Your wagon can stay there but you might want to pick out clothes for tomorrow." He said in perfect Kyprish.

Peter smirked at him, "Thank you kindly."

"We'll be in in a second." Lanna added, "I have to pick what to wear. Tomorrow till we exit the city I will be a noble girl heading to Corus, when we are about ten miles away I will change clothes to a young boy."

Peter looked at his sister before heading over to the box with his Tortallan styled clothes, "I will be her escort to the city, and then after she changes I will be her twin brother, heading to Corus to become servants in the palace."

Lanna glanced at her brother when she grabbed her trunk with Tortallan dresses and men's clothes. She picked up a white under dress, and a royal blue dress that had sliver embroidery. It had a high cut neck line, a tight fitting bodice; the skirt widened out but didn't flare. The sleeves were tight to her elbows then widened so that the sleeves could completely cover her hands. The embroidery made delicate vines, flowers, and leaves around the neck line, end of the sleeves, the bottom of the bodice, and the bottom of the skirt. She decided to wear the same boots as she had on today so she also grabbed a cleaning cloth from the trunk. Lanna then opened a different trunk and replaced her sword, glaive, bow and quiver into their correct boxes and into the opened trunk. She then picked out a different trunk and took out a box that contained brushes, make-up, and bathing things.

Peter picked out a white undershirt, royal blue tunic, and short trousers. The tunic and trousers had sliver bears embroidered into it. The tunic had the same neck cut as Lanna's dress. Peter grabbed white socks and a cleaning cloth thinking the same thing as his sister; he would also wear the same shoes. He also grabbed a box containing bathing things, though he kept out his weapons.

Then they headed into the house with their things for the next day, they didn't go through the front door, instead they used the secret passage that was in the storage room that led to a broom closet in the back of the first floor. They immediately headed up to the third floor where their rooms for the night were located. Aly's spy was leaning against a wall there; he pointed to two doors and then went back downstairs. Lanna opened the door to the room on the right side of the hallway while Peter opened the door on the left. They had identical rooms; a full size bed, a desk and chair, a book shelf that had a variety of trinkets on, a table, a lounge chair, and a door that led to a bathroom. The bathroom had a chamber pot, a bath, and a warming rod. Hung on the rods were hand towels, drying towels, and both had wash towels. Lanna hung her dress on the closet rod in that back of the bathroom. Peter simply tossed his clothes for the next day on his table before heading over to his sister's room. He found her sleeping on her bed, it was late and she hadn't slept well on the ship, Alanna the Younger had inherited Alanna the Older's sea sickness. Peter smiled softly at his sister's face, she looked so innocent, so soft, all of her guards where down and Peter could see the girl she would be if she hadn't chose to become a spy and a warrior. He gently smoother her hair, he glanced at her braid and realized that she had left the leather strip in it. He frowned and undid the braid, taking the strap out and placing it on the bedside table. He got up and found her hair brush in her bath box, he ran the brush through her hair, and then pulled all of her hair into a low braid, securing it with a short, skinny leather tie. He then carefully pick up his twin in one arm and pulled the covers down the bed, when he replaced her onto the bed he saw that she still had her boots on, he untied them and put them on the floor near the door. He walked back to the bed and covered his little sister with a sheet; it was nearing the middle of summer and was hot out.

The male twin left his sister's room and walked down to the sitting room. The host was there, waiting for him. "Lanna fell asleep," Peter said simply. "Were we followed?"

The spy replied, "No, you weren't. I made sure of it."

* * *

When the morning came Lanna was the first one up. She rang for hot water so she could take a bath, a few minutes later two maids walked in, each carrying two pitchers of steaming water. Lanna smiled at them and they followed her into the bathroom. "Thank you," she said simply, the maids nodded and smiled at the young girl who seemed so older than she was. Lanna stripped off her trousers and shirt that she had slept in, and undid her braid too. Her loincloths were also discarded at the side of the tube. She stepped into the tube and ducked her head underneath the water, soaking her hair before opening the corked tube of shampoo and pouring some onto her head, and scrubbing her head vigorously. She then rinsed all of it out, and grabbed the wash cloth and then scrubbing her lavender scented body soap into it. She then stood up and washed her whole body, before lifting one leg and setting her foot on the edge of the tub, and soaping it up. She then grabbed her shaver and shaved her leg, and her other one after that. Her underarms came after that. She rinsed her body and the cloth before hanging the cloth up and getting out of the tub and standing on the wooden floor, and grabbing the d body towel to dry herself off with. She wrapped herself in the towel, grabbed her dress, under dress, loincloths, and her stockings.

Lanna walked into her bedroom and placed all her clothes onto the bed. She unwrapped the towel and got dressed as quickly as possible in her clothes and stockings. She then walked over to the desk in the room; she grabbed her make-up kit and sat in the chair. There was a mirror hung over the desk that she used to put on natural looking make-up, using it to make her look older, and less tan, as it was the style in Tortall. The noble teen girls were not seen outside much and when they were they were covered with a parsol. Lanna used a pale colored powder on her whole face and neck; she didn't bother with her hands because of her dress sleeves. She then took a darker pink, light pink, and shimmer white to her eyes, putting the dark color the closest to her purple eyes, the light pink above the crease, and the shimmer all over her eye lids. Lanna put a pale blush over the apples of her cheeks and put on a clear lip gloss. She then grabbed a black kohl pencil and lined the bottom of her eyes with a skinny line. She also put a thin line over the top too.

The girl looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, her purple eyes were too recognizable. Lanna dug in her wooden box and found her eye dye potions. A single drop in each eye of the one of the different colored potions would change her irises to the color of the potion. She picked up the hazel colored one and placed one drop in her right eye then a drop in her left. She then found a few black leather hair ties, she pulled her hair into a low rolled ponytail, braiding the ponytail with the leather and metal strap, she then took the few pieces she had left out at the front of her hair she wrapped small blue leather strips around them, making to loops in her hair when she attached the ends to the bottom ponytail (like Katara's hair in the last airbender cartoon). Deciding that she was ready for the day she packed up all of her stuff, and put on her black boots. She grabbed her bathroom box and the clothes she had worn the day before, walked out to the stairs, down them, and then out the secret passage way. She repacked all of her stuff and headed back inside after giving Cinta and Keb an apple each. When she reached the kitchen she found the cooks working on breakfast and Peter sitting at the table with a cup of what appeared to be tea. When a cook saw that Lanna had entered the cook poured her a cup too. Lanna sat down across from her older brother, "Thank you for looking after me last night."

Peter looked at his baby sister with kind eyes, "That's my job, Little One. I promised Mother I would look after you."

"I can take care of myself," Lanna said scowling. "I don't need a babysitter."

Peter chuckled, "I know you don't, however, sometimes you forget to look after yourself and I need to do it for you, or remind you. I didn't want to wake you up last night so I took care of you."

* * *

After breakfast the twins went out to the stable. Today Keb would be the one pulling the wagon and Cinta would have a side saddle on till they changed ten miles out of the port city. While Lanna tacked up Cinta in the saddle Peter had to figure out the wagon harness. For five minutes Lanna laughed at her twin before Peter growled at her to help. Lanna quickly fixed all the straps then ordered Peter to pull the wagon over behind Keb, the girl then quickly attached the wagon to the harness. Peter glared at his sister before helping her into the side saddle on Cinta's back. He then opened the barn doors and hopped onto the wagon bench.

* * *

Two hours later the twins were finally far enough outside Port Caynn. Lanna jumped off of Cinta while both horses and Peter laughed, Lanna glared at them, and grabbed the clothes from the bags where she had stashed them earlier.

* * *

AN: I know this wasn't the best chapter, but I wrote it today and I just got my wisdom teeth pulled, so I've been on painkillers all day. So I've been a little loopy, sorry if it doesn't make sense, just review me if you see something terribly wrong. This chapter was longer than the other two put together, I'm hoping to make the rest of the chapters this long, or longer if I can without rambiling.


	4. Corus, Uncle Alan, and Aunt Christy

AN: I would like to thank everyone for reviewing, adding this story to favorites, and to adding the story to alerts. I got really bored today, still being laid up in bed on painkillers but not being able to sleep. I might write another chapter tomorrow, I got the two longest chapters up in this story so far in two days! I'm so proud!

Alright, I own nothing, and here is the chapter!

* * *

When Lanna came back around the trees she had been changing behind, she was dressed the same as Peter, except that she had long trousers on instead of the short ones that he had on. Lanna pulled out her plain brown sword, short bow and plain quiver, and put her _shukusens_ away. She strapped the sword to her leather belt and slid the bow into the quiver, unstrung, and threw it over her back, crossing the strap from her right shoulder to her left hip, the same with the quiver across her back. While his sister was changing, Peter changed Cinta's side saddle to a normal saddle and strapped Lanna's saddle bags on behind the saddle. When Lanna mounted Cinta she grinned thankfully at Peter. Peter chuckled at Lanna's obvious excitement to be in pants and have her sword by her side. Lanna gasped then and dropped off Cinta before sprinting to the wagon and pulling out her cloak and a white cloth that she got slightly damp at a stream near by. She washed her face and neck getting all traces of make-up off of her, and then she tossed the wet cloth on top of the trunks instead of putting it in a trunk and getting everything damp and musky.

Lanna undid her braid and finger combed all out all her hair, undoing the small leather straps in the front of her hair. She pulled all her hair back into a low bun and secured it with a few leather hair ties. The girl pulled her cloak's hood up and made sure that no one could see her face or hair. She then remounted Cinta and nodded at Peter. They again started down the road to Corus at a brisk trot that moved into a smooth lope.

As the two rode over the last hill they stopped and looked over the capital of Tortall. The twins looked at each other and nodded; they replaced their hoods and started a slow walk down the hill. The horses knew what was expected of them, they dropped their heads and dragged their hooves. Earlier in the day the four had talked over how they would arrive in the big city. Lanna would be a rich traveling male teen, called Lan, and Peter would be her traveling companion. They had been traveling for weeks, all over the desert. That would explain the dark skin of the twins, everyone would think they were tanned, they wouldn't think the siblings' dark skin was from their raka blood. As the horses walked into Corus the twins glanced around, looking for a hotel to stay at. They passed a few in the Lower City before they reached the richer part of the city where they could stay with little worry of getting robbed.

"How may I help you?" asked the girl standing at the desk with a smile when Lanna walked in the front door, Peter had stayed with horses and their stuff.

Lanna walked up to the counter, "I need a room with a full bed for me, and a cot for my servant, two stalls, and a place to put a wagon with all of the trunks in it."

The girl grinned at who she thought that Lanna was a boy. "We can do that. Would you like baths set up in your room?"

"Yes, please. But first we are going to go look around the city, this is the first time we've been to Corus, and we would like to see what goods this place has. When we get back could you please have the baths ready, and some dinner for tonight? We're just staying one night. My name is Lan by the way." Lanna grinned back at the girl. The two girls walked out to Peter.

"This way please, your horses can go into the stables." Their host led them into the barn where she left them after pointing out which stalls they could have and where to put the wagon attached to Keb. Lanna pulled Cinta's empty saddle box and grooming kit out of the wagon and started undoing the leather straps and girth that held the western styled saddle onto her back. She then slid the saddle off of her horse's back and placed it into the box with the saddle pad on top of it. Lanna then took of Cinta's bridle and placed that into the saddle box, and replaced it with a halter and lead rope. Lanna used the curry comb, then the hard brush, and the soft brush. She also used the hoof pick and cleaned out all of Cinta's hooves and combed out her mane and tail. By the time she was done grooming Cinta, she no longer had any dirt or dust on her at all, and her mane and tail had no tangles and all of the loose hairs were on the floor.

Peter, however, was having trouble getting the wagon harness off of Keb, again. Lanna giggled at her brother, and Peter glared, "Stop laughing and HELP ME!"

Lanna smirked and walked over to Keb, "Get out of the way, Weirdo. And just let me do it." Lanna pushed her twin out of the way and undid the straps holding the wagon onto the harness, pulled the wagon off to the side, and unbuckled the girth and front straps the held the harness onto Keb. She tossed the harness at Peter, "Hang that up and get me Keb's halter." Peter grabbed the harness out of mid air and rummaged threw the wagon to find Keb's halter and grooming box. Then he tossed the halter and lead rope to Lanna, who then took off Keb's bridle and replaced it with the halter and lead, before tossing the bridle and reins back to Peter. Lanna grabbed Keb's hoof pick and started cleaning out his hooves while Peter went over his hide with a curry comb. When Lanna finished she took the mane and tail comb and untangled Keb's mane and tail, getting rid of all the loose hairs when they came out. By the time she was done with that Peter had moved onto the hard brush, and when he was done with both twins grabbed soft brushes and finished brushing Keb down. Peter put him in the stall next to Cinta's and the siblings left, saying that they would be back later.

"Where to first?" Peter asked as they left threw the front gates.

Lanna grinned, "I don't know, the market I guess, we need to get some new shoes, loincloths, and stockings."

Peter groaned, he hated shopping, "Do we have to? Can't we just stay here?"

"No we can't, but if it makes you feel better we can stop at the Raven Armory and at a tack shop," Lanna said with a sly look at her older twin.

That seemed to perk Peter up a bit, "You promise?"

Lanna held out her pinky, "I promise," she said when Peter hooked his pinky through hers.

* * *

Two hours later found Peter with five boxes in his arms, two had shoes in them and the other three had loincloths, stockings, shirts, and tunics in them. "You said we could go to the Armory and tack shop," Peter complained.

Lanna looked back at her brother with an amused look in her eyes, "Where do you think we're going now?"

Peter let out a 'whoop' and clicked his heels together.

"Be careful!" Lanna said scolding, "I don't want you to drop those."

Peter scolded, "Oh hush, I'm not going to drop them."

The twins walked into the Raven Armory and glanced around; Peter placed the boxes next to the counter and walked to the wall with different swords and axes. In the Isles Peter hadn't learned how to use an axe, it always weighed too much, even for a half crow. Lanna didn't even want to; it was too 'manly' for her, though she knew she would have to learn it eventually. Peter picked up an axe that had a spike at the top, it had a black handle, and sliver polished blade and spike. He swung it experimentally, careful not to hit anything. Lanna glanced at him before picking up a set of throwing darts and a set of throwing stars. She slipped the darts threw her fingers, and finding them and the stars to her liking, set them on the counter. Peter placed the axe next to them, "Anybody here?" he called.

"Hang on a second," a young sounding voice yelled from the back. Then a male of around twenty walked into the front room, "How may I help you?"

Lanna pushed the throwing darts, stars, and Peter's axe forward, "we would like to purchase these please."

"Sure," the male looked at what was on the counter, "Set of darts is 50 gold pieces, set of stars is the same, and the axe is three hundred gold pieces. Comes to a total of four hundred gold pieces (I just made that up, I really have know clue what it would be)." The man wrapped the darts and stars in separate cloths and placed them into a bag. He then took the axe and wrapped it in a thick cloth and slid it into a box.

"Thank you," the twins said that the same time, and smiled at the man, though he couldn't see Lanna's face as she still had her cloak and hood on. They grabbed their new weapons, Peter grabbed the clothes boxes, and they left the store and headed back to their hotel.

* * *

Back at the hotel Lanna and Peter found trousers in their trunks for the next day, they had decided that what they had bought in the market they could wear the tomorrow. They then left the stable and walked into the main house where the same girl as before walked out of the kitchen, "Oh good, you're back. We just put your bath water on the fire. I'll show you to your room." She led the two up a set of stairs and into a room on the left side of the hall, "Here is your room, there's a cot set up in the corner. Please call if you need anything, someone will be up soon with your bath water. Dinner will be ready when the seventh bell rings." Since the fourth ball had just rang they had plenty of time before dinner was served. (I'm going by AM and PM timing, I'm not the best at math and since I said dinner I meant PM, so just go with it)

Lanna collapsed onto the bed, "We're finally in Corus Peter! We made it."

Peter chuckled at his sister's antics, "Yes, we finally made it Lan. Don't let it go to your head yet though, we still have to find our grandparents."

Lanna leaned up onto her hand, propping her head up so she could look at Peter, "I already found them, Silly. They have a town house near here, we can go there in the morning, and I know for a fact that Alan and Thom are there for the next week."

Peter growled at his sister, "You couldn't have told me this earlier? We could have stayed there tonight."

She just giggled at her brother's face, "No we couldn't have, they've been at the palace today, they won't be back until late tonight." Said brother just glared at his sister.

* * *

Peter woke up Lanna when the sixth bell rang in the morning; they both got dressed quickly in blue trousers, white shirts, black tunics, and white cloaks. Lanna pulled the hood on her cloak up again. They both strapped on daggers at their wrists, ankles, thighs, and at the back of their waists, hooked swords on their belts, but they left their bows off, since those would be put in the wagon later. They slipped down the stairs and paid the man that was behind the counter 5 sliver nobles. The two walked out to the stable and quickly brushed Cinta and Keb. Lanna put the harness on Keb while Peter tacked up Cinta; they both hooked that wagon up to Keb's harness, and slipped their bows into their weapon boxes. Then Lanna hopped onto Cinta's back while Peter opened the barn doors, Lanna rode out and Peter led Keb out and shut the stable doors when the wagon was all the way out. Peter then hopped onto the bench and followed Lanna out the front gates and up the street to the Noblemen's district. Keb and Cinta trotted down the street till they reached a fountain, the both stopped and got a drink while Lanna looked around. Peter was still half asleep and just lounged on the wagon's bench. When the horses were done Lanna turned onto a street that had three houses on it. One was Alanna the Lioness's and her husband's, the one on the left of that was Alan's- Aly's twin- and his wife's, and on the other side of Alanna's and George's was Thom's, the eldest sibling. Lanna pulled her hood down and rode up to the gate that led to Alan's house.

She pulled out a letter from her money purse at her hip and showed it to a guard stationed there. He waved at her and Peter to go in. Lanna nodded at the man and nudged Cinta into a walk. Keb followed with no asking from Peter. The girl had her mare turn down the right path which led to the stables. In the stables Lanna untacked and quickly brushed Cinta down, before she unhooked the wagon from Keb's harness, she pulled it off to the side but left Peter where he had fallen asleep on the bench. Lanna then took the harness off of Keb and hung it up outside of his stall; she also took off his bridle and hung it next to the harness. As she worked she and the horses talked about the next few days. They would stay at Alan's house for two days, resting from all the traveling and getting over the time change. They would then head up to the castle and surprise everyone there. Their grandparents, Aunt Daine, Uncle Numair, and Uncle Thom hadn't ever met them. Alan was the only one at the moment that knew they were there, and why they were in Tortall. When Lanna was done brushing Keb she made sure to check each of the horses' hooves for rocks, and she also combed their manes and tails. She then grabbed two trunks, one of hers and one of Peter's, each had Tortall clothes in them, and she also grabbed the four weapon trunks. Using her crow strength she stacked up the six trunks, hers on one pile and her brother's on the other. First she carried hers up to the house and left them in the foyer, and then went and grabbed Peter's and left them by hers. Then she walked back to the barn and half dragged, half carried her twin up to the house. When she got back up to the house, her uncle Alan was standing on the front porch. He held his finger to his lips and picked up his nephew, Alan then carried him into the house, up two sets of stairs.

The stairs opened up into a sitting room with two leather couches set around a fireplace, a table with four wooden chairs around it, and had four black lounge chairs that were arranged in a half circle around a large bookshelf that was only half full. There were two doors on opposite sides of the sitting room. Uncle Alan carried Peter into the one on the left side. Its walls were a dark wood, with a matching queen size bed and weapon rack, there was a fireplace made of stones, and it also had two doors leading off of the bedroom. One led to a study with a desk made of the same wood in the bedroom. The other door led to a bathroom with a chamberpot, a built in bath tub, and a sink mounted onto the wall, it also had a towel warming rack and a door that led into the walk in closet. Peter was placed in the bed and covered with only the sheet; the quilt was pulled to the end of the bed, and folded up. The sheets were emerald colored with a sliver quilt that had emerald embroidery.

Lanna's room was the same; except hers was a light colored wood and she had sapphire sheets and a sliver quilt with sapphire embroidery. Her closet also had a place where she could hang up her dresses. Lanna carried her trunks up the stair and left them in her closet, not bothering to unpack since she would only be staying a day, and then she went to get Peter's trunks, only to find that Uncle Alan had already carried them halfway up the stairs. "Thank you, for everything," she said shyly, it was the first time she had ever seen her uncle face to face, sure they had talked through their darklings but it was different seeing someone for the first time in person.

Alan smiled at his young niece, "Your welcome Honey," he said as he pulled her into a hug, "This is really heavy, could you help me?"

Lanna grinned, and picked up all of the trunks, "It's not that heavy."

Alan huffed, "Show off," he muttered, and Lanna laughed at Alan's face. She carried the trunks into Peter's closet and tipped toed back into the sitting room. Uncle Alan was sitting on one of the couches, "This will be your floor, and you're welcome to stay here whenever you want. I'm your mother's twin, and closest brother. I promised Aly that I would take care of you like you were my own children." Alan took Lanna into his lap and pulled her close, "I'm glad that you're finally in Tortall."

Lanna grinned at her uncle, "I am too Uncle Alan. Hopefully Peter and I will fit in more here than we did in the Isles."

The uncle and niece looked at each other then got up from the couch. "Come on Little One, I'll show you around."

Lanna scowled at the nickname, "How did you know that's what Peter and Dad call me?"

Alan chuckled that the look on her face, "Your mom told me, I figured if that's what they call you, I should too." He walked down the stairs to the ground floor, "This is the living room," he led her to a room on the left side of the foyer, the room had several couches and lounge chairs situated around a fireplace.

Alan then walked through the room and out the door on the other side to a court yard. It had a fenced in circle of dirt that was heavily padded down, two men in it were practicing sword fighting, which led Lanna to assume, correctly, that it was a practice court.

Then her uncle led her through the court yard to the kitchen, when he walked in the cooks and servants in there bowed, then went back to their work. Alan nodded at them, and then walked through the room to the dinning room, explaining that this was where they ate when the whole family was home, or when it was a very special dinner. But normally the people at the town house just ate in their rooms or in the kitchen. Lanna nodded and glanced around the room, it had a chandler and a long table that could easily seat twelve people.

Alan then walked through the dinning room into the sitting room that they used when there was company. As he explained the different uses of each room they walked through, then he walked up the stairs to his and his wife's rooms, they had a sitting room, bedroom with a king bed, two walk in closets, study, and a bathroom. His wife, Christy, was reading while sitting in a leather lounge chair. "Christy, this is Lanna. Aly's daughter," Uncle Alan introduced them, "Lanna this is your aunt Christy."

Christy stood up and hugged her niece-in-law, "It's nice to finally meet you Lanna."

Lanna hugged her aunt back, "And you," she said, "thank you for letting me stay here, Peter and I truly appreciate it." Lanna smiled at Christy.

Christy smiled down at the young, black haired girl, "I wouldn't just leave you to fend for yourselves in a new country. Your family and will be treated as such. My daughter is at the convent, or you would meet her now, and my son is with the pages on their annual summer trip."

"That's fine, I'm sure I'll meet them eventually. Until then they should focus on their studies, so don't worry about telling them my brother and I are here."

Christy nodded, "Where is Peter by the way? I haven't seen him."

Alan wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, "He was asleep when they got here."

Lanna added, "He doesn't travel well, he barely slept on the ship. He'll sleep for the rest of the day and night. Peter will be fine in the morning." Alan and Christy nodded, understanding how hard it was to sleep while traveling.

The three sat in silence for a few minutes before Lanna got up, "I'm going to go to my room and take a nap. Can you make sure I'm awake when it's dinner time?"

The aunt and uncle nodded, saying that they would be sure to wake her up in time to get ready for dinner. Lanna thanked them and walked up to the third floor. She went through her and Peter's sitting room into her own bedroom. She pulled off her shoes, socks, trousers, tunic, and shirt. Then she grabbed an oversized shirt to wear to bed. The girl pulled folded the quilt to the end of the queen sized bed and slipped underneath the sheet. As soon as her head hit the pillow the nine year old was asleep.

* * *

Four hours later Aunt Christy walked into her room, she smiled at the young girl, and sat on the side of the bed near Lanna's head. Christy ran her hand through her niece's hair, "Wake up, Lanna. It's time to get ready for dinner."

Lanna groaned, rolled over, and opened her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Half past the fifth bell."

Lanna glanced around the room, "Thank you for waking me up, when does dinner start and where are we eating it?"

Christy smiled softly at her polite charge, "We'll eat at half past the sixth bell, in the informal living room downstairs."

Lanna nodded and thanked her aunt, "I'll be down in a little bit then, is what I was wearing earlier okay? Or should I put on a dress?"

"What you were wearing earlier is fine, Alan told me you don't like to wear dresses unless it's necessary," Aunt Christy said, "I have to go wake up your brother now."

Alanna the Younger nodded, "Thank you, Aunt Christy. But please let Peter sleep, he can eat when he wakes up, I don't think he's had a good night sleep since we left the Copper Isles." The older woman nodded and left the room. Lanna put the clothes she had on earlier back on and re-braided her hair, securing it with a black strip of cloth. She checked on her brother before heading downstairs to the living room where her uncle and aunt were already sitting with trays in front of them. A third tray sat on the coffee table in front of an empty seat on a couch. Lanna sat down and started eating the chicken breast and made small talk with her family, mostly about her cousins and what they were up to.

* * *

The next morning found Lanna trying to get someone to practice sword fight with her, she scowled and started a pattern dance with her sword that had a black blade with dark blue patterns and a sapphire embedded in the handle. The exercise kept getting faster and faster till it seemed like there was a steel wall around the girl. When she stopped she was barely breathing heavily, even though the pattern she had just done was twice its normal speed. She then grabbed her glaive from the wall she had propped it against, and started a pattern dance with that too, again going faster than a normal human could, but then again, she wasn't a normal human. When that was down she picked up the bow she had made and shot arrow after arrow at the bulls eye, one arrow every second, only missing the center a few times. When she had emptied the quiver she walked up to the target and pulled each arrow out, careful not to break any of them. When each arrow was replaced in the quiver, she walked back to the line and threw dart after dart, then threw the stars. She went and grabbed those then she was done throwing too.

Done with her exercises she picked up her bow, quiver, and glaive and went back up to her room where she had a bath waiting for her. Lanna washed her hair, her body and shaved. When she was done in the bath she grabbed a towel from the warming rack and stepped out of the tub, and dried her legs, torso, and arms. When she was completely dry she hung the towel back up and grabbed the robe that was hanging near the door of the bathroom. Lanna then walked into her closet where her trunk lay, she opened it up and picked up black leggings, a tight black shirt, and a long sapphire tunic that hit her knees. It was what she wore when she didn't want to wear a dress or boys' clothes. The tunic was split from the bottom of it to a little bit higher than mid-thigh.

Lanna took a black leather belt and hooked it up a little too loose, and hooked her sword that had blue steel and a sapphire in the handle up to it. Then she took another one and slipped it on the opposite way as the other belt and hooked a long matching dagger to that belt (think of crossed belts where they sit diagonally from waist to hip). She also slipped on dagger sheaths at her thighs, underneath her tunic but above her leggings. She also slipped a dagger in each of her black boots that she was going to be wearing today. She then put the boots on and laced them up.

She took a black leather hair tie and pulled her hair into a high bun, leaving a few strands of hair out to frame her face. She dyed her eyes a dark blue and took a dark blue and a lighter blue shadow to her eye lids. She also lined her upper and lower lids with a black kohl. She put on a light blush and a light pink, almost clear, lip gloss.

Lanna then repacked all of her stuff and carried her trunks back downstairs and out to the barn, putting the three trunks back into wagon. When she got back into the house she walked through the formal sitting room, then the dinning room, and sat at the kitchen table. Almost immediately, one of the kitchen help came up to her, "What do you want for breakfast, Young Mistress?"

Lanna chuckled, "Please don't call me that, it's just Lanna. And some toast with strawberry jam would be wonderful." The cook nodded and within five minutes Lanna's favorite breakfast sat in front of her, Lanna thanked the woman and ate the two pieces of toast quickly. She took her plate to the sink and walked out.

She headed back up stairs to go wake up Peter, which was unnecessary, as he was already awake, taking a bath. She sat on his bed until he walked out, wearing only black trousers and white shirt. Peter was carrying a blue tunic and a green tunic, "Which one should I wear Lanna? I can't pick."

The fashionable twin looked at both, "The green one, it'll match your eyes better." Peter shrugged and pulled on the green tunic. He then grabbed his comb from his bath box and ran it through his hair, before tossing it back into the box. He styled his belts the same way as his sister's, but he added daggers to his wrists, and in his boots. Both of the siblings then stacked his trunks and carried them down the stairs and out to the barn, replacing them in the wagon, which would be pulled by Cinta today.

They then walked back into the house and found their aunt and uncle in the kitchen. Lanna introduced the three when the twins sat down at the table, Peter grabbed a plate, took some eggs, toast, and a glass of milk. While the family ate Uncle Alan explained, "When we first get to the castle you will go to the King's study and explain what you are doing here to their majesties. They know that we have two nine year olds that are looking to join the pages when they are old enough. They don't know exactly who you are but since you're the Lioness's grandchildren, I don't think that it'll be a problem. I have arranged for you to have rooms like the ones here, except you'll have your own sitting rooms, in the family wing." At the twin confused looks Alan added, "Since we are a big family and we visit a lot, we have a whole wing that devoted to our family. Your mother would have a room there too if she ever came to visit."

Lanna and Peter looked at each other and grinned, they wouldn't have to worry about taking up space in somebody's house! They had their own rooms right in the palace! Peter quickly finished his breakfast and ran out to the stables to tack up Keb. Lanna just laughed at her twin, and excused herself from the table. She then harnessed up Cinta and hooked the wagon onto the harness, though she left off Cinta's bridle for the moment because they couldn't leave without Uncle Alan and Aunt Christy. Peter however was already mounted and ready to go. Even Keb was dancing in the anticipation given off by his rider. Lanna giggled at her older brother and patted Cinta on the neck, tell her what a good girl she was and what dorks Lanna's brother and his horse were. When their aunt and uncle finally walked out of the house Peter was literally jumping in his saddle and Keb was having a hard time to stop him from falling. Alan and Christy just laughed at the two while two stable hands tacked up their horses. Alan used a Western saddle while Christy had a side saddle. The three mounted family members and Lanna headed out to the streets and up to the palace that would be the younger twos home for the next few years.

* * *

AN: that's a good 5,200 some words! I'm so proud. Eight pages! Wow.


	5. The Palace

AN: Thanks everybody for reviewing on the last couple chapters. TheWackedOne pointed something out, but I don't remember what it was so I can't answer it. I know I pmed her the answer too… oh well, enjoy the story.

* * *

When the four family members got to the front gates of the palace Lanna and Peter pulled up the hoods on their cloaks and ducked their heads. The guards recognized Alan and Christy and opened the gate without questions. They rode up to the stables and handed they horses over to the stable hands.

"Bring the trunks in the wagon up to the Pirates Swoop wing, please," Alan told the stable hands. "Some might be a little heavy but leave them all in the family sitting area." One of the hands nodded, "Thank you."

The entrance hall Lanna and Peter looked around in wonder; it was beautiful, yet so different from the palace in the Isles. Alan and Christy laughed at the looks on their faces, "Come on you two, you have a meeting with the king and queen." The twins nodded and followed the two family members that they had met up the staircase, down a hall, up another stair case, and into the king's private study, where King Jonathan was sitting behind the desk and Queen Thayet sat at the window seat.

They both looked up from the paperwork they were reading when the doors opened and the four walked in. Alan bowed while Christy curtsied. Both of the twins bowed Copper Isles' style, right hand in a fist over their heart with their left hands behind their backs. The king and queen glanced at each other before Jon spoke, "Thank you Sir Alan, you and your wife may go, my queen and I would like to talk to the twins alone."

Alan nodded and led Christy out of the study, "We'll be in the family wing when you're done," he said to his young niece and nephew, who glanced at him before nodding.

King Jonathan waited until the study door was shut before motioning for the siblings to take a seat. He waited for them to get comfortable before starting, "It's nice to finally meet you Peter and Alanna the Younger. I'm glad the two of you have decided to make Tortall you home. Your mother and Queen Thayet discussed you coming here before you arrived," when Lanna glared at him, he quickly added, "I didn't even know they did this, but Queen Dove and I have talked after we found that my queen and your mom had talked, we've decided that you can have duel citizenship, you may travel freely between your two countries. And we will let you become knights here in Tortall if that is what you wish. By having citizenship in both Tortall and the Copper Isles you have created a peace treaty between us. The Copper Isles and Tortall will not fight, and we will stand by each other in war."

The twins smiled at each other, they would no longer have to choose if Tortall and the Isles got into a war with the other, and that made them very happy. "Thank you very much your Majesty, my brother and I truly appreciate what you have done for us," Lanna said.

Peter nodded at his younger sister's words, "What you have just said made our day, we promise not to let you down."

"I do have one question for you though," Lanna added, "is it possible for my brother and me to train with the pages even though we won't be eleven for two more years?"

Queen Thayet nodded, "We have talked it over with the training master, haMinch, you may train with the pages for this year, and when you turn ten you will be allowed to become a page, a year early."

Lanna jumped up and hugged her new queen, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Peter smiled at his sister when she let go of Thayet and hugged Jon, "Thank you, your majesties, this means a lot to us. But if you don't need anything else, we would like to unpack, and maybe find the practice courts. Please send us a message if you need us for anything at all." Peter nodded and grabbed his sister's hand, pulling her out of the study. "Let's go Little One; we should set up our rooms."

Lanna scowled at the nickname, "We don't know where our new rooms are," she reminded her twin.

Peter just grinned at his little sister, "You don't know where they are, but I got Uncle Alan to tell me when we got the palace."

"And you didn't tell me this before because?" Lanna glared at her big brother.

"Because I thought it would be fun for me to know something that you didn't for once in my life," he responded while leading the way down the halls, up and down some different staircases, and through a couple different courtyards, passing different nobles and servants on the way. "Because of the fact that Grandma Alanna is the King's Champion the family wing is by the royal wing," Peter explained.

Lanna nodded, "I figured that we would be near the royals, do you know if there are any kids our age here?"

Peter shook his head, "I don't think so, maybe a year older and younger, but I don't think there is any one our age here." Lanna shrugged, used to having only Peter at her age. The two walked up one last set of stairs. "This is the family sitting room," Peter said as they walked threw the door at the top of the stairs.

Uncle Alan and Aunt Christy sat on one of the couches, each reading what looked to be poetry books, but they both looked up when the twins walked in. Christy got up and motioned for them to follow her while Alan went back to his book. "Your trunks are in the corner," she said and led them over to the twelve trunks that were stacked in to nice piles. Lanna and Peter took one look at them and sorted them into two different piles, Lanna's trunks in one and Peter's trunks in another.

There was a knock on the door and Christy opened it, letting in four servants. She directed them to help carry the trunks up to the twins' rooms. Peter and another stacked up his trunks into two piles of two then carried them up three sets of stairs. There was another set of stairs that led up one more floor, and there was a door that had Peter's name on it. Peter let go of the trunks with one hand and opened up the door before grabbing the trunks again with both hands before they could drop. The servant and Peter placed the trunks inside the room before going back down the stairs to grab the other two trunks and carrying them into the room. Peter thanked the man and dismissed him.

Peter's walls in his new sitting room were made of maple wood; there were also two matching couches that sat around an empty fireplace, with three lounge chairs. The walls were covered with book shelves, most filled, but a few were empty, just waiting for Peter to fill them with his own books. A few shelves had different knick-knacks on them; beautiful stones, carved statues, and a couple jewelry boxes that were empty when Peter opened them. There was a door that led to the bedroom; its walls were made from the same wood as the sitting room. There was a queen size bed with dark green sheets and a sliver quilt was black and green embroidery. Hanging on a wall was a tapestry of a waterfall with different species of animals lying around the pond made by the falls. One of the walls had a huge weapons rack hanging from it. There were four doors in the room, one led back into the sitting room, one opened into the bathroom, and one led into a walk-in closet. The last door opened into a study. The bathroom's walls and floor were made of stone. There was a bathtub set into the floor, the tub's sides and bottom were sanded smooth and was rounded. It wasn't square or rectangular; it was oval, deep on one side and shallow on another. The tub was infused with magic, Peter just had to add some of his magic to the tub's to wake it up; it would then fill with water that was just the right temperature. There was a chamber pot in the corner and there was a sink next to it. A warming rack with a huge towel and a wash cloth sat next to the shallow side of the bath. There was also a hook on the wall near the door for Peter's robe when he got it unpacked. In the bathroom there were also three doors, one to the bedroom, another back to the sitting room, and one to the closet. The closet was full of waist high shelves around all of the walls, except where doors opened into the room. Above the shelves there were rods for hanging up dress shirts and tunics. On the rods there were many wooden hangers just waiting to have something hung from it. Peter left the closet, walked through the bedroom into the sitting room where his trunks were. He dragged two of the trunks into the closet. He then started unpacking everything, placing the clothes onto the right shelves or hanging them from the rods. When he was done unpacking the trunks he fit them into a corner of the closet. He then left the closet and pulled the other two trunks into his bedroom, hanging all of his weapons up, and placing the bow strings, cleaning cloths, and whetstones in the dresser that sat below the rack. He then put those two empty trunks in with the others in the closet. He walked back into his bedroom and through the last door he hadn't been through yet, his study. This room had only two doors, one into the bedroom and the other opened into the sitting room. The study had a desk, and in the drawers sat pens, charcoal, chalk, chalkboard, and paper. On the top of the desk there was a lamp sitting in the corner and a paper weight on the opposite corner from the lamp. There was a wooden chair pushed into the desk, it had a cushion on it that looked rather comfortable.

Back with Lanna were three servants; they stacked up her eight trunks so that there were two trunks in each pile. The four stacks of trunks were carried up to the fourth floor. Lanna's rooms were the same as Peter's; except hers were made from a birch and she had blue sheets with a black quilt with sliver and blue embroidery, and she had a vanity with a mirror in her bathroom. She pulled her two trunks that had weapons into the bedroom and hung all of her weapons, besides the ones on her body, on the rack, and placed her bow strings, cleaning cloths, and whetstones in the dresser. She then tugged her clothe trunks into the closet, where she opened them all up, hanging up the dresses and folding the trousers, shirts, and tunics into the shelves below them. All of the clothes were organized by what country would wear them, the Tortallan clothes where the closest to the front of the closet followed by the Copper Isles' clothes with other styled clothes after them. She then took her fluffy robe into the bathroom and hung it up. Back in the sitting room Lanna picked up her calligraphy box and carried it into her study. She placed it on top of her desk and left the room.

Lanna went into her closet and picked up the outfit she normally used for fighting, semi-tight black trousers- which showed off her legs but were loose enough where no one could see her muscles bunch, a sapphire shirt which was tucked into her pants. The shirt was cut the same way as her pants, tight, but not too tight, and loose but not so loose to where it would be easy to rip it. She threaded a black leather belt through her belt loops, but she didn't hook her sword with a sapphire on it up to the belt. Instead she carried it into her bedroom and hung it up. She took her plain sword down and hooked that one onto her belt. She also took a matching dagger and placed that on her belt on the opposite side as the sword. She replaced her black boots in the closet and grabbed a pair of plain brown leather shoes and put them on. She redid her bun, being careful not to leave any of it down. She placed short daggers at her wrists, thighs, and ankles. She also put a special barrette into her bun. The barrette had a short, hidden, throwing knife in it.

Lanna then ran down to her brother's floor and knocked on the door quickly before barging in, "Peter! Come on; let's go find the practice courts."

Peter groaned, "Is that all you think about?" he asked, and shook his head when he saw Lanna nod as he walked into his sitting room. He had on the same type of outfit as his sister, except his shirt was emerald. He also had his plain sword and daggers, though like Lanna, you couldn't see he had daggers on him. He also had his bow strapped to his back, and when Lanna saw that she gasped and ran back up to her room only to be back a few seconds later with her Tortallan bow and quiver. Peter chuckled quietly as his sister pulled him down the stairs and into the family room.

"Who are you?" asked a red headed man sitting on the couch with a book in his hand.

Lanna looked at him, "Depends, who are you?"

The man stood up, "I believe I asked you first."

"I believe I don't care," Lanna said as her hand went to rest on her sword's handle.

He glanced down, "I am Thom. I studied at the university in the city. And I am the first son of Alanna the Lioness."

Peter pulled Lanna back, "Be nice," he whispered in her ear. "You must excuse my sister, she never did learn patience. We are Peter and Alanna, we're twins. You must be our uncle. Your sister, Aly, is our mother. We just moved to Tortall from the Copper Isles."

Thom nodded and got up from the couch, "I knew Alan was hiding something these past few weeks. He knew you were coming didn't he?" The twins nodded and Thom glared at a staircase that probably led up to Alan's and Christy's rooms. "Of course he did, couldn't tell anyone that you were coming, even though we haven't seen you since you were born."

Lanna looked at her uncle Thom, "I didn't know you were there when we were born, I though you were just at Mother's and Father's wedding."

Uncle Thom chuckled at Lanna as he hugged Peter, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world, you two were my first niece and nephew. I would have disobeyed the king's direct orders to be there, though luckily I didn't have too. He told Mother, Da, Alan, and me that we could go, pretty much told us we had to too. I bet he's glad you're here."

Peter nodded and let his uncle go hug Lanna, "He is, he gave us citizenship here in Tortall and let us keep our citizenship in the Isles. Told us that the two of us created a treaty between the countries, something about the fact that we were very powerful influences both here and there, and neither country was willing to give us up, and so as long as we agree with both countries the countries will back each other."

Thom nodded, "That sounds like something that your mother and Uncle Jon would do. Use you two to come up with a reason not to fight."

The twins smiled and nodded, "Yeah, Mother wouldn't like fighting with her birth country. She would use anything she could so she wouldn't have to decide where her loyalties lie if the Copper Isles and Tortall got into a war. It would hurt her to have to choose between her family and the country she fought to get back for its people," Lanna said, then added, "Could you tell us how to get to the practice courts? King Jonathan said that we could train with the pages when we got back. But we'd rather not be out of shape when they do."

Thom looked at them, surprised, "I'll do you one better, I'll bring you to the courts myself."

* * *

A little bit later the three family members had walked into the sun, Thom waited on the outside of the fence while Lanna and Peter marched into the courts. They each unclipped their swords, bows and quivers, and daggers at their hips and laid them next to the fence. The twins then started the warm ups they were taught by the various training master that they had had. First came the stretching of their legs, from doing the splits to touching their toes, both standing and sitting. Then Lanna went from the middle splits up into a handstand, and walked in a circle. Peter just looked at her and shook his head, shoulder shaking with repressed laughter at his sister's goofiness. Lanna grinned at her brother from her handstand, glad she could make her serious twin laugh. Lanna then laid down on her stomach while Peter came up and took one of her arms, pulling it up to stretch out her shoulder, he held it for a few minutes before switching to her other arm. When he was done with that Lanna flipped over onto her back and Peter took one of her legs and pulled that upward, making sure to keep both of her knees straight. That would stretch out her hamstrings. Then Peter switched legs. After that Peter laid down and Lanna stretched Peter by doing the same things to him.

When that was done the twins stood and started on their hand-to-hand combat exercises. They started by doing high, middle, and low blocks at the dummies sitting in each corner of the court. When they had run through each of their hand exercises the started on the kicks that they had been taught, after that the two twins faced each other and had a free fight, hand-to-hand only, no weapons allowed. Lanna attacked first, lounging left then spinning into a quick right-footed round house. Peter dodged and landed a punch to his sister's thigh as it slid past her. Lanna landed in a crouch, careful of the Charlie horse that she had gotten when Peter had punched her. Peter attacked, aiming for Lanna's hurt side, and managed to hit her in the shoulder. Lanna ducked out of the way so that the worst of the blow didn't hurt her. She then lounged at her brother and managed to land a kick to his shoulder, but Peter grabbed her ankle and pulled, getting Lanna's legs over his shoulder and holding her torso in front of him. Lanna struggled to get down, but Peter tickled her till she gave up and just laughed and laughed, "Mercy!" she yelled still giggling. When her brother let her down she sat on the packed dirt and tried to get her breath back. "That's cheating," she gasped, "you can't tickle."

Peter chuckled at his sister's red face, "Yes I can, you know better than me that I can't win against you with resorting to trickery." Lanna glared at her older twin, then at her uncle when she noticed that he was laughing too.

"Whatever, Peter, you cheated, just admit it."

"No I won't, you would have done the same thing," Peter said still grinning at his twin, who nodded looking guilty.

Peter then helped his sister up and grabbed their swords from where they were laying on the dirt, he tossed Lanna's to her, handle first. She caught it and attached the sheath to her belt before taking the sword from it. Peter did the same and they stood facing each other with their swords up in the guard position. Peter attacked first this them with a right-handed butterfly cut, which Lanna avoided by sliding back a step and to the left, she then attacked by sliding her sword up and twisting it around Peter's, trying to make him drop his. Peter slid backwards a step before lounging left and circling his sister. Lanna never took her eyes off of him, but she didn't really move, just slid her feet in a circle so that her front was always facing him. When Peter realized that Lanna wasn't going to let him get near her back he attacked, but Lanna was much better at using blades than just hand-to-hand. When using swords she had extra distance, which gave her better odds than when she didn't have blades because she was so small. Lanna swung out of Peter's way then wrapped her arms around his neck, and laid her sword against his neck, "I yield," the boy said with a strangled voice.

Lanna grinned and whispered, "Pay back," into her brother's ear before releasing the pressure from his neck. Lanna stepped back and resheathed her sword while Peter did the same. Unknowing to them they had gotten an audience that was watching the two nine-year olds with interested eyes. When the two had stepped back the group of people started clapping, the twins glanced at each other before shrugging and bowing to the people.

"Who are you?" they asked at the same time.

Their uncle Thom stepped up and introduced the people. First he pointed at a large man with brown hair, "This is my uncle Raoul, not by birth but he went threw training with Grandma and they became very close, my sister called him uncle too." Thom then pointed to the woman next to him, "That's his wife, Buri, she came to the country with the queen, Mother met them when she was traveling to get the Dominion Jewel. The giant of a man next to her is Sarge; he helps train the Queen's Riders. The group of men and women behind him are some trainees at the moment." Thom then moved to the group of people standing next to Raoul, "That's Lady Knight Keladry or Kel as we call her, and her husband Dom, who is in the King's Own. The men behind him are the ones that report to him. The red head standing there is Alanna the Lioness, but you would know her as Grandma," Thom said with a sideways glance at the twins, who glanced at their uncle before launching themselves at their grandmother.

"THOM!" Alanna yelled, "Why didn't you tell me they were coming?"

Lanna looked up at her grandma, "Don't yell at him, he didn't know we were coming. Only three people knew, Uncle Alan, the king, and the queen."

The knight muttered a few choice swear words underneath her breath about backstabbing best friends. Lanna and Peter looked at their grandma in interest, storing the words she said for further use. Alanna the Older pulled away, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to come visit?" she asked her young grandchildren.

Peter and Alanna the Younger looked at each other, before Lanna looked back at the lady knight, "We didn't just come to visit, Grandma," she took a shuddering breath, "My brother and I decided to move to Tortall and become knights. We didn't really fit in in the Isles. Mother and Father stayed in the Isles but we moved here. We wanted to become knights, and with our training we could almost be spies. Mom taught us a lot but she said that Grandfather taught her everything she knew, but he didn't teach her everything he knew. We want to learn everything we can. And Tortall seems like the best place to be." Lanna looked at her brother and continued, "We were hoping to be allowed to train with the pages when they got back from their trip. We already talked to the king about it and he agreed. However, we were hoping that you would agree to help us. My brother and I will have to overcome many obstacles because of where we come from."

Alanna nodded, "Of course I'll help train you. You only had to ask, I'm sure Raoul and Kel will help too if you like," as she said that she glanced at the two who nodded. "I'm glad you moved to Tortall, have you got rooms yet? Where are they? Did you make sure that you're in the family wing?" The grandmother kept asking question upon question, not letting her grandchildren get a word in edgewise, but the kids were entertained just watching their grandmother look so excited about the fact that they had moved to her country.

Thom stepped up to his mother, "Slow down Ma, breathe and let the kids answer. You're overwhelming them."

Peter nodded thankfully at his uncle, "We have rooms in the family wing, I have the third floor while Lanna is on the fourth," he said.

Lanna nodded, "Our rooms are wonderful, and I love mine. It's almost like my room in the palace in the Copper Isles."

Alanna nodded at the twins, "I'm glad you have rooms near ours, it will be good for you two to be in the family wing, and I'm sure it will be easier to get you up in the mornings to get you to the practice courts." Lanna groaned at her grandmother's words, while Peter chuckled. Lanna was not a morning person, but Peter was. Alanna and Peter grinned at each other when Lanna glared at the both.

The twelfth bell rang and everyone jumped. Lanna and Peter looked at their uncle for an answer of what it was, "That's the lunch bell, come on. I'll show you where the mess room is." Thom looked at the others, "We going to go eat in the King's Own mess or the Queen's Riders?"

Buri and Raoul looked at each other than back at Thom, "You've been in the academy for too long, Thom. The two messes have morphed into one, follow me I'll show you where," Buri said as she took her husband's hand and led the group to the mess for the Own and the Rider's.

While they were walking Peter and Alanna talked to each other, trading secrets about how to wake up people who were not morning people at all, Lanna just glared at them. Raoul and Buri talked to Thom about things that had changed since the last time the scholar had been there.

* * *

By the time the group had got to the mess hall everyone was laughing and telling jokes. They walked into the mess hall and attracted a lot of attention from the other men and women in the hall. Lanna and Peter shrunk to the back of the group, trying to blend in with their new found family. Kel looked at the two hiding in the back; she knew what it was like to be the new kid, to be the one that people would gossip about. Kel wrapper her arms around each of the kids shoulders and led them forward. She showed them what to do in line. She picked them both up trays and gave them to the twins, then took plates for them both and placed those on the trays. Kel let them pick their own food, but made sure that they both had vegetables. Dom chuckled lightly at Peter's face when he had seen what Kel had put on his plate. At the end of the line both twins grabbed a glass of milk and carried their trays to the table and sat next to their grandmother and her friends. As the two siblings passed conversations broke out about who they were and what they were doing with the commanders and knights of Tortall. And why they looked a lot like Aly, Alanna's daughter.

Dom and Raoul just glared at anyone who dared stare too long at the shy twins. Peter and Lanna sat between Raoul and Sarge, trying to seem as small as possible with so many eyes staring at them. Lanna might be a menace on the courts but she was a spy at heart and didn't feel comfortable with so many people noticing her, though she was also rather small and she didn't want to be seen as weak. Peter just wasn't comfortable with people he didn't know. He was a naturally shy boy, but he tried not to show it around his sister.

Half way through lunch Alanna had had enough of the staring and whispers. She stood and addressed the room, "The two kids sitting here with us are my grandchildren, their Aly's children. You remember Aly don't you everybody? She's twins with Sir Alan. Peter and Lanna have moved here from the Copper Isles. They will train with the pages for this year and when they turn ten they will join the ranks of the pages. Now STOP STARING AND GET BACK TO YOUR LUNCH!"

Lanna and Peter had shrunk down in their seats when their formidable grandmother had stood up. By the end of her impromptu speech the only part of them you could see was two foreheads. Sarge pulled Peter up by the back of his shirt while Raoul did the same with Lanna. The two glared at the people who pulled them up from their hiding spots before turning back to the food that sat in front of them. Lanna picked threw her food carefully, making sure that nothing touched that wasn't supposed to eating in a rather delicate manner. Peter, on the other hand, simply gobbled his food down, ignoring the scathing looks he got from his sister as he inhaled his lunch. Kel watched him and shook her head. The boy reminded her of how the pages in her year used to eat.

* * *

After lunch Kel and Raoul led the Lanna and Peter out to the tilting lanes. Tilting wasn't done much in the Isles so it was new territory for both twins, sure they knew the basics and they each had jousting saddles, but that didn't mean they were any good at it. The stable hands already had Cinta and Keb saddled and ready and there were two lances leaning against the fence near the gate. The siblings looked at each other before shrugging and hopping into the saddles. As they had their horses walk through the gate each twin grabbed a lance. They hefted it up, testing the weight before putting them back down.

"These won't work," Lanna stated, "they're too light."

Peter added, "Our dad is crow, which makes us half crow. We're stronger than normal humans, we are People. All of our weapons are weighted. These will have to be too."

Kel nodded, knowing the feeling of using weapons too light for one, "I'll get them adjusted. I guess we can go drill with the King's Own for today."

Raoul nodded, "Follow me," he said, then turned to Kel, "take those down to the weapon makers, and meet us at the Own's training courts when that's done."

Kel looked at her old knight master and picked up the lances. She jogged down the dirt road and out of sight. Raoul led the siblings to a huge court filled with sweating men. Lanna looked around, eyeing up the competition, while Peter glanced at what each pair of fighters were using as weapons. He took off as soon as he found a group working with axes, they gladly welcomed him and started teaching them the uses and fighting moves of the deadly weapon. Lanna found a group of men that were throwing darts, stars, and knives. They were mostly missing. Lanna chuckled, walking over to them, and started to correct what they were doing wrong. After she showed them that she could hit the bull's eye nearly every time the men held grudging respect for the young girl. After that they taught her some more of the more complicated moves of Tortallan sword fighting.

The rest of the day went like that, Lanna and Peter teaching some, and the Tortallan soldiers teaching some. When Raoul called a stop to the drills everyone was drenched in sweat. The Own trudged to their wash rooms, while Lanna and Peter jogged up to their rooms in the castle.

* * *

AN: Another update today… I really need a life… Oh well, hope ya'll like this chapter as well…


	6. Healers, Family, and new Friends

AN: Longest chapter yet!

Disclaimer: as always I own nothing…

* * *

Lanna slipped into her tub, sighing when the hot water hit her bruised and battered muscles, but then she gasped when water touched a cut on her arm. She had gotten that when she hadn't been paying attention in a two-on-one sword fight. When the men of the Own had found out that both Lanna and Peter could hold their own in a one-on-one sword fight they had introduced the idea of being out numbered. The twins immediately took to the idea; Lanna was paired with Dom and one of his men named Qasim while Peter was put with Kel- who had finally showed up- and the second in command, Flyn. Even with their inhumane speed it took only minutes for both twins to be sweating and hurting. By the end of that exercise Peter was on the ground gasping with a sword at his throat, he had bruises on his back, legs, arms, and a small cut across his forehead. Lanna had bruises everywhere and her arm had been sliced when she hadn't moved out of the way of Dom's blade fast enough. When the siblings were unarmed their partners showed them what they had done wrong and had promised to help the next day with the same exercises. Lanna and Peter had looked at each other then and groaned, which had made the people that had heard that conversation laugh.

But back to the present, Lanna looked at the cut on her arm, took a deep breath and put her whole arm underneath the water. She hissed at the stinging pain before dunking her head underwater and cleaning her whole body. When she got out of the bath she dried off and wrapped herself up in her robe before getting dressed in brown trousers and a blue button up blouse. She strapped on daggers at different points on her body but forgo her sword. Lanna braided her hair with the leather and metal strap. She then walked into her study and got her first aid kit from the desk. Now the twins may have the Gift, but that didn't mean they had been taught how to use it for healing. Sure they could light fires, create light, and do some other stuff, but they were no good at healing, however Lanna was very good at making different healing salves, from bruise balm to a type of ointment that could heal a cut that would have needed stitches otherwise.

The nine year old opened it up and grabbed a healing salve from the black bag. She opened it up and smelled it, making a nasty face before she rolled up her sleeves and dipped two fingers on her right hand into the jar. The girl then rubbed her salve covered hand over the cut, she whimpered a little, whatever that was in that bottle hurt when it touched her wounded arm. When Lanna had rubbed the salve into her arm she dug through the first aid kit again, this time looking for some gauze and cloth. When she found it she folded up the gauze and pressed it to her arm, then she wrapped the strip of white cloth over her arm, making sure it wouldn't move or fall off. When that was done she pulled her sleeve back down and tried to exit her room, only to find Peter standing in the way with some gauze pressed to his forehead.

Peter looked down, "Help me please, Lanna. I'm no good at patching myself up."

Lanna giggled slightly at her older twin, "Come here, I'll fix you up right." Now the twins may have the Gift, but that didn't mean they had been taught how to use it for healing. Sure they could light fires, create light, and do some other stuff, but they were no good at healing. The twins walked into Lanna's study and she pulled out her first aid kit again. She took out the salve that she had used on her arm and dipped her fingers into it again. But instead of rubbing it onto herself she pulled Peter towards her and gently touched her fingers to his head. He hissed but didn't move away from his sister. Lanna rubbed the salve into the cut for a few seconds before wiping the extra onto a towel. "Yours isn't that bad, it's just a scratch. You'll be fine without a band-aid. Peter nodded and the two left the room, heading back down stairs.

The two made it to the mess hall without too many problems. Their grandmother and Raoul couldn't join them at the evening meal because they had a meeting with the king, however when the two made it down to the hall they were welcomed by the people they had talked to earlier. "Over here you two," Kel called at the twins the moment they walked threw the door. Lanna nodded and the two siblings walked down the line, grabbing food along the way. When they had grabbed what food they wanted Peter and Lanna walked around the tables to get to where Kel and Dom sat with some of Dom's squad. Kel moved closer to Dom so Lanna could sit next to her, and Peter went to sit between Flyn and Qasim.

"How's your head?" Qasim asked Peter, which drew the people's attention at the table to Peter.

He blushed lightly, "I'm fine, got Lanna to patch me up a little."

"He won't even scar," Lanna looked around at the table, "Well he would have if I had used a stronger salve, but the one I did use just sped up the healing process a little bit." Lanna turned red at the gapping faces looking at her, "It's rather simple," she muttered.

During Lanna's explanation Neal had walked in, "No it's not. How did you know that if you used a salve that was too strong on his head that it would scar? Most would just slap on the strongest ointment they had just so that it would heal quickly."

Kel slapped him upside the head, "That was very rude Neal. You should introduce yourself to someone you've never met before." Neal looked a little sheepish, and Kel turned back to the younger girl, "This is Sir Neal; he was in the year older than me when we were training to be knights. His dad is the Head Healer here, though Neal is planning to take over his spot when he retires."

"Which should be soon," Neal muttered, "he's old."

Dom knocked Neal upside the head that time, "That doesn't mean you'll get it, we both know that Uncle Baird will work in the hospital wing till the day he dies." Kel nodded at that but didn't add anything.

Peter glanced between Neal and Dom, "Are you two cousins?" he asked.

"Unfortunately," Neal muttered.

Dom looked at his younger cousin, "Yeah we are. If you ever want to annoy him just call him Meathead." Neal scowled at his family member.

Kel laughed at Peter's and Lanna's faces, "You'll get used to it, it happens a lot." The twins looked at Kel and nodded, mouths slightly opened.

A few minutes later Neal and Dom gave up their little fight and Neal turned back to Lanna, "You never did explain how you knew what strength salve to use."

The female glanced at Peter before answering the knight, "I knew what to use because I used a salve that I had made. My brother and I have been patching each other up since we first learned first aid, my brother and I have been patching each other up since we first learned first aid, we have the healing Gift. We haven't been taught how to heal directly but we can infuse our Gift into the salves and ointments that we make."

Neal looked between the two you mages, "First bell after dinner you will report to the hospital wing for lessons on healing. Don't heal any cuts or bruises you get from training, but if you break something come directly to me or my father. You can have tonight off as I assume that it's your first day here in the palace."

The twins looked at each other, and something seemed to pass between them, "We can do that," Peter said, looking back at Neal.

After dinner Lanna and Peter went back up to the family sitting room where they flung themselves down on two of the couches in there. There were however, people already sitting in a couple of the couches and chairs. Aunt Christy sat next to Uncle Alan, and on the other side of Alan there was a teenage boy reading from a thick book, Alanna the Older on the lap of a man who had his arms around the Lioness's waist where his hands rested on her hips. Uncle Thom sat next to a pretty blonde who was wearing a pale pink dress; he had a young boy of five on his lap, while the woman was holding a toddler. When the twins had walked in all talk had stopped and those who had yet to meet the siblings stared at them. Christy looked around, "It's not polite to stare," she said. Then she started the introductions, "The two that just walked in are Aly's children, Alanna the Younger- or Lanna, and her twin Peter." She pointed at the girl in her lap, "This is James."

James looked up, "Everyone calls me Jamie."

Thom took over from there, "My wife's name is Isabella or Bella for short. And these are our children, Lucas and Paige."

Lanna nodded to each of the people introduced, "And who are you?" she asked looking at the last man in the room.

Alanna looked at the man then back at her granddaughter, "This is your grandfather, George."

Peter sat up, "It's nice to meet you and everything but it's been a long day. I think I'm going to be heading up to my room for a nice, quiet night." He stood up and trudged up the stairs to his room.

"It's nice to meet you all," Lanna said as a bell rang, "I think I'm going to the hospital wing. Neal said we could stop by there whenever we wanted, and we didn't use as much healing salve as I thought we would, so I have a lot of extra." The girl ran up the four sets of stairs, through her sitting room, and over to a chest of drawers next to her desk. She rummaged through the different drawers that she had filled with jars earlier in the day. When she found the different colored bottles she wanted the girl made sure that they were labeled. And before she placed each into a basket she had grabbed on the way up the stairs she wrapped each bottle in its own cloth. When she was down she had two baskets full with twenty-five jars each. Each different kind of salve was a different color and in a different shaped bottle, the biggest being two jars of bruise balm that weighed easily five pounds each to the smallest bottles of strong disinfectant that would make sure no infections got into a wound and were an ounce each. There were bags of different types of teas that would cure headaches and heal sore throats. Small pouches of powders sat in between the different jars, the powders, when added to clean water would make more of the potions, and tinctures that were in the bottles and jars. The Copper Isles' people used the powders when they were going to go for long trips as they were easier to carry and weighed less; Lanna figured that the Own and Riders could use them. When the female twin was done packing up everything she wanted to give to the hospital wing. She picked up the two baskets, one in each hand, and carried them down the stairs. When she reached the sitting room she said good night to her young cousins- Lucas, and Paige- who were being brought up to bed, though Paige was already asleep in her mother's arms.

Alan looked at Lanna who was having some trouble carrying the two heavy baskets. Alan glanced at his son who was still reading, "Jamie," the boy looked up, "help your cousin please. Those baskets look a little heavy."

Jamie nodded and got up from the chair he was sitting on, "Let me put this back in my room," he said before racing up a different set of stairs. In the sitting room there were three sets of stairs, one led to the twins' rooms with Alanna's and George's rooms on the floor below them, Alan's and Christy's rooms were up a different set of stairs with their children's above them. And Thom's family's rooms were the same up the final set of stairs.

When Jaime ran back down the stairs he took one basket from Lanna and led the way out of the family wing. Lanna hoisted her basket up onto her hip and followed her quiet cousin out of the room. After awhile Lanna was sick of being ignored, and huffed, "Are you going to talk to me at all?"

Jamie looked behind him at his follower, "I have nothing to say. I don't know you, and at the moment I don't want to," and he turned back around.

"Why don't you want to know me?" Lanna asked curiously, not really worried at the fact that she was with a man that was bigger than her; she knew she could hold her own in a fight.

The fifteen year old didn't turn around, "I've been studying to be a healer since I was ten. You just waltz in and are invited to learn from the chief healer and his son the first day you get here. That's not fair to me, I study and study and I haven't even been mentioned to the healers here."

Lanna looked down, "I'm sorry you feel that way, but truthfully it's not something I can do anything about. I'm a natural healer, could I learn more about healing? Yeah, and I plan on it. I want to learn to use all of my powers, be it fighting, spying, healing, or using my Wild Magic. I have the power to do it; I just haven't learned it yet."

Jamie shook his head, "That's what I mean, I've seen you fight. I watched you fight with the King's Own earlier today, I saw you fight with your brother before then. You can do amazing things with your body, when you fight it's like a dance," he turned around, "I've been trying to do something that no one in my family has done, something I can do to stand out." The boy started walking again, "healing is the only thing I can think of, no one in the family is known for it, sure Grandma can heal, but she's doesn't do it for a living. She's the King's Champion."

"That's not my fault," Lanna said, "My brother and I don't want to be known for healing either, he wants to be a great knight, and I just want to be me, all of me. I'm a spy, fighter, healer, and I want to become a Wild Mage like Daine, but I don't want to known for any of those. I want to be known for helping people."

The boy didn't glance back that time, "You may not want to be known for anything but helping but you will be known for something other than that. Helping people comes with healing, fighting, and your Wild Magic. Though I don't think espionage would count as people aren't supposed to know who is doing the spying." He kept walking as he continued, "there's nothing you can do to convince me that you're not going to be the center of attention."

Lanna sighed, she knew that. Didn't mean she wasn't hoping that there was, but she knew that people would be mad at her and her brother for coming to Tortall.

"Sir Neal?" Lanna called as she opened the door to the hospital wing, "You in here?"

An old man walked out from what Lanna thought was an office, "I'm not Neal, but I am his father. Can I help you?"

Lanna looked around the room, "Yeah, Neal told me to come by here after dinner. My brother and I have natural healing talents. Your son said we didn't have to come by today because we just got here but I figured that you could find better use for these then I could," Lanna said, holding up her basket with one hand and pointing at the basket Jamie had with the other. "They're potions and salves from the Isles. I made them there, thinking we would use them on the trip here, but nobody hurt like I was afraid they were going to be."

Jamie cleared his throat, "If that's all Lanna, I'm going to head back."

Lanna nodded at her cousin, "Thank you for showing me here, Jamie, and good luck on your studying." Jamie nodded, put his basket down, and left the wing.

Duke Baird glanced at the girl before him, "Stay here, I'll go get Neal." When Lanna nodded at the duke he left the room.

The young girl looked around; the room had twenty beds, ten on each side of the room. There was a small table sitting next to each bed and each table had a lamp sitting next to it. Only three beds were full, and everyone was asleep. One man's leg was wrapped in a cast; another was coughing horribly, while the last looked deadly white as if he had lost too much blood in a short amount of time. "Lanna," a soft voice called, "Come in here please." It was Neal, "bring the baskets with," he called from the doorway.

Lanna picked up the two baskets, propping one on her hip while holding the other with her free hand. She walked over to Neal who held the door open and moved aside so she could walk through. When she walked into the room, which she found to be a study, Neal shut the door and took her baskets from her. "What are these?" he asked, poking through the woven baskets.

Lanna slapped Neal's hand away, "Don't touch, those are delicate," she said when Neal went to poke his hand into a pot.

Baird glared at his son and put the top back onto the jar, "What's in all of these?" he asked. The girl pointed to each jar and explained what each did as she took them out of the baskets and lined them up on the table against the wall. She then started pulling the different teas out and placing them next to the jars. When she had taken all of those out she took out the packets of powder. The duke and his son looked amazed that they hadn't thought of drying salves out. "Why hasn't anyone here thought of making powdered potions? I've never heard of it."

Lanna nodded at Baird, "Of course you haven't heard of it. It took my brother and me a good year to be able to do it ourselves. Before that only the raka knew how to do this. It has to be done in a certain order and with a certain amount of the Gift." Lanna glanced at the two top healers in Tortall, "I could teach you, if you want that is."

Neal nodded quickly, "I always want to learn healing ways from around the world. And if I travel with the King's Own I can teach their healers, and the Queen's Riders when I see them."

"How about I come here bell after dinner?" Lanna glanced at the head healer.

The duke nodded after looking at his son, "That would work, but for now go to bed. You've traveled a long way from the Copper Isles, and I can see the rings underneath your eyes. You need some rest."

Lanna looked ready to argue but one hard look from Neal and Baird stopped her, she nodded and ducked her head, knowing that they wouldn't give in. "I'll see you tomorrow, Duke Baird." She then looked at the knight, "I'll see you in the practice courts. Kel told me that you needed to work out; she said that if you didn't show up on your own she would come and get you. Two bells after breakfast."

* * *

Days past as the twins fell into a routine; they would get up when the second bell of the day rang, do their morning warm-ups and head down to the mess hall. After that they would follow Kel and Raoul to the tilting lane and practice tilting and jousting. Then they would go work on hand-to-hand, staff, and sword fighting with Alanna, and join the Own and Riders for lunch and practice throwing darts and stars under the veterans' watchful eyes. Peter would also learn axe work from the Own too. When that was done the two went up to their rooms to bath and dress for dinner. And when dinner finished they would take quick naps before heading to the hospital wing to learn how to use their Gifts for healing and to teach the duke and Neal to make the powders that the raka mages did.

Two weeks in Tortall had show on the siblings, both had bulked up on muscles and their stamina had increased, which was saying something considering that both were half crow. A fact that Daine had picked out the moment she had been in the same room as them, and soon Daine's lessons were added to the work they already did. Instead of spending every night in the hospital wing the twins alternated between there and learning Wild Magic with Daine and Numair. Lanna thrived under the long hours, while Peter struggled a little at first he soon got the hang of it too.

A month after that the pages and the training master, haMinch, returned from their camping trip. And haMinch would never forget his first sighting of the crow-twins. They had been wrestling in the pages' training courts with their grandmother keeping careful eyes on them, occasionally yelling out orders. Lord haMinch had stomped up the red-haired lady, demanding to know why two youngsters where fighting in his courts. To which Alanna had stopped the twins, introduced them, and handed them off to the training master and she left to go to a meeting with the king and queen. Lanna and Peter had watched haMinch pace in front of them before motioning for the twins to follow. They had walked behind the man and listened while he explained the rules of being a page and what he expected from them. The pages had already gone back up to their rooms and the new pages that year weren't going to be coming for another month.

Since the pages got a month off between the camping trip and the first day of the next year most had gone to their family's town houses. Only a handful stayed, and only a couple of those would get up in the morning to go to the practices that haMinch held at the courts

The first full day that the pages were back found Lanna and Peter running the palace wall before breakfast, even before the other pages that had stayed were up. Peter had to drag Lanna out of bed, but just like every other day Lanna was glad he had. She might not be a morning person but because of all the things she wanted to do in one day she had to get up early. By the time the twins had finished their run and had cleaned up a little breakfast was just about to start. The twins hadn't thought about eating breakfast with the other pages so when a boy knocked on Lanna's door she was surprised.

"Breakfast is going to start soon," he said, and then added, "Oh, I'm Paul of Trebond, I'm a second year page."

Lanna looked the boy over; he had light brown hair and had a solid build. Lanna could tell that he would be tall when he was done growing. "I'm Alanna of Pirates Swoop (that's where Aly was from when she lived in Tortall, so that's how the twins would introduce themselves), but everyone calls me Lanna. My brother and I will be first year pages, next year. We're only nine so the king and haMinch said we could train with you but we wouldn't officially be pages till next year." Lanna scowled, "It's going to be rather boring I'm afraid, my brother and I have studied different fighting techniques from all over the world. We've lived in the Copper Isles, travelled to Carthak, Maren, and the Yamani Islands."

Paul looked over the young girl before him, "Oh, I get it. You're Aly's daughter, and the Lioness's granddaughter," at Lanna's nod he continued, "My grandfather, Coram, was Alanna's mentor when she was training to be a knight."

"Well don't tell anyone, my sister and I would like to blend in a little," a voice said from the door.

Paul whipped around, fists up in a fighting position, and Lanna laughed a little, "Chill, young Trebond, it's just my twin, Peter." Paul nodded, slowly dropping his hands to his sides and relaxing his fists.

"Lanna, breakfast is going to start, and I won't have you skipping," Peter said as he put a hand on her shoulder, leading the way out of the room.

The group of three stopped to lock Lanna's door then continued on their way to the mess hall. The twins let Paul led, they hadn't been to the pages' mess hall before. When the twins walked into the mess hall the few pages that were in there stopped talking and stared at them. Lanna scowled at the attention while Peter just ignored it. Peter grabbed two trays from the front of the line and handed one to his sister, watching carefully as she put some food on it, adding more salad here and chicken there. Lanna glared at her twin, he always had to make sure she ate enough as she was too skinny to begin with and her rigorous training schedule took its toil. The girl had yet to understand why it was important to eat three meals a day.

When haMinch walked into the hall, after Lanna, Peter, and Paul had sat down, everyone stood up again, the twins a beat behind everyone else. A prayer was said and everyone took their seats again. Peter kept an annoying close eye on what his sister was eating.

Paul introduced the three other people sitting at the table, "The tall one is Jacob of Blue Harbor."

"It's Jake," the boy interrupted.

"Sorry, Jake," Paul said, "Kaile of Goldenlake," a brown haired girl nodded from the end of the table. "And last but not least, we have Rikash Salmalín."

Rikash looked up from his food, "I'm not a page yet Paul. I'm not ten yet."

Paul chuckled lightly, "Yeah, but you've lived in the palace your whole life and you got me and Kaile out of a lot of trouble last year," he paused, "Besides, these two," he nodded at the twins, "won't be pages till next year either."

"Well it'll be nice to know someone in our year when we start," Peter said.

Lanna nodded, "Yeah, it's not often that my brother and I meet children our own age that have lived in a palace their whole life."

Rikash grinned at Lanna, "Yeah I'm sure. You can call me Kash, everyone does." The twin nodded and everyone went back to eating.

"High! Middle! Low!" haMinch yelled at the pages that had come to training courts that morning. Paul, Lanna, Peter, Kash, Kaile, and Jake had all come, plus two older pages that didn't talk to our little gang.

Lanna and Peter stood facing off, going slightly faster than the other groups, but neither were breathing too hard, "Slow down Lanna," Peter said quietly, "We'll attract too much attention." Lanna nodded and slowed down her pace, lessened her blows on Peter's staff, and the two slipped into the same pattern that matched the others. Though they had not done it soon enough, a boy was watching them, and smiled when his slightly pointed ears heard what Peter had said to his sister.

After staff drills haMinch started on hand-to-hand combat drills. The drills started again, only this time the group wasn't paired, the group of pages- and almost pages- were put in front of straw dummies. They practiced punches and kicks by aiming at the dummy if front of them. The training master even showed the group a couple new punches and kicks; he said that if they were going to come to the extra practices they should learn something new. The pages grinned at that, they would be ahead of the pages that had left for the month off.

When the group had run through all of the drills that haMinch taught them a few times the training master sent them up to their rooms to get their bows. At the archery field the group stood in a line and took aim. As the pages fired shot after shot at the bulls eyes haMinch went through and fixed stances and aims. Before they knew it the bell that announced lunch had rang and the three pages raced up to the pages' wing to put away their bows and change out of their sweaty clothes while Kash, Lanna, and Peter went to their family rooms.

"Lanna you have to eat!" Peter was pounding on his sister's door, "you can't skip lunch. It's not healthy."

"I'm not hungry," came a voice from the room.

"Open this door right now," Peter paused, taking a deep breath, "Or I'll break it down."

The door creaked open and Lanna poked her head out, "You wouldn't."

Peter shoved the door open the rest of the way, "Now we'll never know."

Lanna growled at her brother before picking herself up from the floor and lying on her bed, "I'm not hungry, Peter. I'm not going to lunch."

Kaile walked into the room with Paul. "Yes you are," she said as Paul threw the small girl over his shoulder. "You have to eat when in training, even if it hasn't started yet."

Paul nodded as Lanna struggled over his shoulder, "And you're thin enough as it is, some meat on your bones wouldn't hurt." Three of the people in the room walked out while one was carried, Peter locked up Lanna's room with the key he took out of her belt purse. "You'll thank us for this one day," Paul called over his shoulder.

Lanna glared at the people that had dragged her out of her room. "Doubt it," she muttered, quietly enough that nobody heard her beside Peter, who looked up at her and smirked. The female twin looked around, "where's Kash?"

Kaile glanced at Lanna, hanging upside down from Paul's shoulder, "He said he would meet us in the hall." Lanna nodded and dropped her head onto Paul's back, rescinded to being carried to the mess hall.

* * *

AN: Hey ya'll, just so you know I always feel much better when reviews are sent! So hit that little button down there!


	7. Society of Roses

AN: Sorry it took me so long, but this chapter is longer. And just think, the more reviews I get the fast I write. Oh, and schools going to start soon, so updates will be fewer.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Peter grinned at his sister, "Let me down now please," she asked when they got close to the pages' mess hall. "I don't think I can get away right now."

Paul agreed and almost put her down before Peter snapped, "Don't, trust me. She can get away if you put her down."

Lanna pouted, "What if I promise I won't leave?"

Her twin laughed, "Yeah right. I'm not going to fall for that again. You like to trick people."

Lanna looked thoughtful before she smirked and nodded, "You're right about that, Brother. I do like to trick people."

"Don't let her down till we get into the hall," Peter told Paul.

Kaile opened the door to the mess hall when the small group got there. Lanna glared at her smirk when Paul continued to carry her. Kaile, Peter, and Paul walked into the hall with Lanna over the tall boy's shoulder. The two older pages were already there and glanced up from their lunches, one raised his eyebrow, silently asking why there was a girl over Paul's shoulders. Peter shook his head, replying just as quietly that he didn't need to know.

The three walked over to the line, Peter and Kaile each grabbed two trays, Peter's for him and Lanna, while Kaile's trays were for her and Paul. Peter filled his trays and carried them to the table the group had sat at during breakfast and Paul told Kaile what he wanted before the two of them went and sat next to Peter. Lanna was dumped, unceremoniously, next to Paul, across from Peter, and in front of her plate.

"I was going to have lunch in my room," she complained, the others just looked at each other and shrugged before going back to their food. Lanna poked at hers until Peter snapped at her to eat, she sighed then started eating what was given to her. "Just one more thing," Lanna looked up, "Where's Kash?"

Kaile looked around, confused, "He normally eats with us."

Paul shook his head, "His mom wanted him to spend the day with family, something about his dad and sister getting home from the north."

"The north? I thought that the war was over?" Peter asked.

"The war may be over but there are still things to do, hunt down Maggur's people, stuff like that. The only reason Kel and them are back is because the Third Company needs to recruit and they haven't been home in a year," Jake had finally showed up.

Lanna looked at where the boy was standing; he had told them that he was going to see family for lunch. "What are you doing here? I thought you were heading into the city."

Jake nodded, "We already ate. We don't get along that well, my parents think that we only need one knight in the family, and my oldest brother should be him." He paused, "besides, I'd rather talk with you."

Kaile nodded, she knew Jake rather well, they had been friends since they had met the first day of training last year.

* * *

"Peter! Lanna!" Kel yelled from across the practice courts, "It's time for tilting practice."

Lanna looked up (not that she had any choice, she was rather short), "You're still going to train us? Even though Lord haMinch said we could practice with the pages?"

Raoul looked confused, "Wouldn't you want us too? When normal training starts the pages have classes in the afternoon, they'll be in the palace, doing book learning."

Peter and Lanna looked at each other, horrified. "So in the afternoon we can train with you?" Peter asked.

Kel laughed, "Yes, for this year at least. Next year you'll have to join the pages."

Raoul added, "Besides in the summer months off haMinch doesn't hold practice in the afternoons."

Lanna nodded, "I noticed no one was out here, but I figured that it was because they only wanted to come to practice once a day."

Kel shook her head, "Go saddle up and grab your jousting saddles, today we're going to be moving onto harder targets."

Lanna and Peter glanced at each other and then ran to the stables.

The twins found their two mentors inside the tilting lanes, standing in front of a quintain that had a black dot that was a little smaller than a palm print inside the red circle that had been painted in it. Raoul explained what was happening, "You two can hit the quintain inside the red circle all the time now, so we're moving you up a level. You need to hit the black dot now."

Kel walked down to the end of the lane with the two nine-year olds while Raoul stayed near the dummy. Peter squinted at the dot, "I can barely see that dot! How are we supposed to hit it?"

"You can see that?" Kel asked, "I can't, practice is the only way. It'll be hard, and you'll want to quit but you will get it eventually."

Lanna nodded and moved into position, and Cinta charged at the dummy. The horse had learned, after weeks of practice, just how fast to go when Lanna was tilting. To be able to tell exactly where the twins had hit Raoul had covered the tip of their lances with chalk. Lanna leaned forward in the saddle, squinted her eyes and raised her lance to hit the wooden shield, and didn't get hit with the sandbag. When the chalk had settled and Cinta had turned back to the target Raoul went to check exactly where Lanna had hit the quintain.

"Half on the dot, half not," Raoul said, "you did better than Kel her first try."

Lanna nodded, a little upset that she hadn't hit it in the middle, and headed back to the starting line while Raoul reset the quintain for Peter. Peter didn't get hit with the sandbag either, but he also didn't hit the black dot in the center. The rest of practice went well for the twins, they tilted until they horses were covered in sweat, but they only hit the dot completely a couple of times each. Both twins were annoyed with themselves by the end, though Raoul and Kel said they were proud and did really well.

* * *

Because they weren't pages Peter and Lanna weren't allowed to eat dinner in the pages' mess. So they went to the Own and Rider mess hall. They sat next to Dom and Kel, who introduced them, for the first time, to Onua. She had been in Galla, getting more ponies for the new Riders. Daine showed up to talk with her old mentor and her new students. Neal and Daine had taken to teaching during dinner on the days that the other had the kids after dinner, it was a hospital wing night for the twins so Daine had showed up to remind the twins of the homework she had given them. The two answered the questions that Daine asked and got most correct. Lanna also asked a couple questions on the reading that she hadn't understood, Peter listening closely.

When dinner was done and the twins had given their dishes to the kitchen help they raced to the hospital wing.

"I won!" Peter yelled.

"You did not!" Lanna yelled back, "you cheated."

Peter stuck his tongue out at his sister, "No I didn't. You tripped on your own."

"You pushed me into the wall," Lanna disagreed. "I felt your hand shove my shoulder." They were still arguing about it when they entered the main room of the wing.

"It doesn't matter who won," Duke Baird said, "just that you're here and not hurt." The twins looked at each other and nodded, resigned to another night of healing the small cuts and bruises of the little princes and princesses.

However, that is not what happened. Five minutes into the siblings arriving at the hospital wing a blood covered mess was rushed in.

"Duke Baird!" yelled the person that had helped carry the injured person in.

Duke Baird and Neal rushed into the room, "Oh my Gods, what happened?" the duke asked.

The man shrugged, "We don't know. We found him like that at the bottom of the wall during a pass."

Neal was busy running his magic through the man, "We're going to need lots of power if we want to save him, and we want to, trust me." Neal looked at his father, "He's one of the Whisper Man's."

Baird nodded at Neal, "You stabilize him, and I'll get the twins." Both men knew that the only two with enough power to save the man were the untrained, untried nine year olds, who were currently making some healing salves for the soldiers to take up north when the passes melted. Neal didn't even glance up as Baird left the room. The men that had carried man to the wing left quietly, going to wait in hall.

The twins were rushed into the room by the duke. They ran to the side of the bed and waited for instructions from the two healers. "Each of you take one of our hands and give us energy," Duke Baird said, holding one hand out. Peter took his hand while Lanna took Neal's. The two older healers were suddenly overwhelmed with the Gift of the siblings.

Neal yelped, "Not too much! We can only take so much at one time."

Lanna looked sheepish and cut down the power she was feeding Neal, Peter doing the same.

Neal and Baird guided the flow of magic from the twins into the body before them; they healed bones, burned out infection, refilled his lungs, and restarted his heart when it stopped. The twins paid careful attention; the saw the magic run through bones, felt it healing as it rushed through the dying man's body. After of what seemed like days of healing, but was really an hour and a half the healers withdrew the magic from the man. Lanna and Peter nearly fainted when the extra Gift they had given the father and son rushed back into them. It was only a small amount of what they had in the first place, and that was the reason for them losing their balance. Neal and Baird picked up the crow-twins and placed them in beds next to the healing man's. Neal bandaged the few non-serious cuts on the Whisper man's spy and left the hospital wing, he had to tell Alanna and George what had happened. Baird covered the sleeping forms of Peter and Lanna with the light cotton sheets on the two hospital beds before returning to his study and sitting in his lounge chair.

The next morning Peter woke up before Lanna. He sat up and glanced around, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Neal walked into the room with the twin's grandmother, "Good, you're awake." Neal started asking a ton of questions as he tested Peter's joints, checked his eye sight, before getting him a drink of water. Alanna stood to the side, switching between watching her grandson and checking on her granddaughter, before leaving the wing to get the twins food.

Five minutes after Peter woke up Lanna started to stir, and Neal repeated the same process with her, before Alanna walked in with a tray with two full plates and two glasses of milk. Both siblings eagerly took the food given to them and wolfed it down. "What happened?" Peter asked.

Duke Baird walked into the room, "We were healing a man that had fallen down the stairs, when we were down you had used so much of your Gift that you passed out."

"You're going to be a little weak for the next couple of days," Neal added, "but as long as you promise not to do too much work you can leave." Peter nodded and Lanna just looked away, already planning on things she could try to get away with. Neal looked sharply at the younger Alanna, "I grew up with Kel," he warned her, "Don't let me find you at the training courts today."

"Oh, you won't find me," Lanna said quietly enough where nobody heard her.

"Lanna!" Paul yelled when he saw her walk into the training courts after she had bathed and changed in her rooms. Kaile grinned and waved at her before turning back to haMinch. Paul, for his forgetfulness, got a staff to the head when the training master tossed it to him. Lanna smiled and caught the staff aimed at her when she was close enough and paired with an older page, while Jake paired off with Kaile and Paul with the other older page.

"Lanna you better not be here to practice," Kel had found her.

Lanna looked at up guiltily, "Of course not Kel." Lanna said while trying to hide the staff behind her back.

"Mhm," Kel replied, giving Lanna a scolding look. "Lord haMinch, if you would please take Lanna's spot. I have work for her to do."

"Keeeelll," Lanna whined, "I'm fine. Let me train."

Kel shook her head, "Hush, and follow me. Do you have your sword?" she asked quietly.

The girl looked down at her hip, "Yeah, I always do." Kel nodded, and motioned for Lanna to continue to follow.

"Neal will be there soon and you'll be in trouble. You should practice in your rooms," Kel said.

Lanna groaned, "I can't tilt in there."

Kel laughed lightly, "It'll be fine if you miss tilting today, and Raoul's gone anyway. But I noticed that you have a glaive, I want to see how well you are with it."

Lanna nodded, looking curious, "why?"

"Because I spent six years in the Yamani Islands and I miss having new sparing partners. Only Shinko, Yuki, the queen, Buri, and my mom regularly practice, and they're busy a lot. It'll be nice to teach someone. I've learned tricks with the glaive during my few years as a knight," Kel stopped, then added, "and I'm sure you can find them useful too."

Lanna nodded, ready to take any help she could if it could make her a better knight eventually. Kel had already been through page training, and though she wasn't half crow, she would have some good hints for Lanna to use when she finally did enter the page ranks.

The rest of the morning Kel gave Lanna tips about keeping up with the other pages, and told her to pass them on to her friend Kaile. Kel helped out with exercises, like push ups to strengthen her arms, using rubber balls to strengthen her hands, doing curl ups for her abs, and squats with weights to help her legs. Kel showed her some new things with the glaive, and some clue hand-to-hand combat moves that used a person's weight and momentum against them. By the time Neal had finally found them to make sure that Lanna wasn't overworking the two were rolling on the floor laughing as Kel told stories about when she was a page.

To which Neal quickly turned red and left.

Lanna fell asleep early that night; her grandmother had tucked her into bed when she had found the girl sleeping on her comfy chair with a book. Daine had been warned about what had happened the night before and was told not to expect the twins so Alanna didn't worry about it.

"No," Lanna said sleepily, "Don't eat the bunny rabbit Cinta."

Alanna smiled softly at her granddaughter's dreams before leaving the room.

* * *

A few days later Lanna was up, bright and early, jumping on Peter's bed. For the first time in a long time- if ever- the female twin was up before the male. She was dressed and ready to go down to breakfast with the pages one last time before everyone else showed up later that day. It was the last time that Lanna and Peter would be allowed to eat with the pages. After this it was a page only hall. The twins might have rooms in the page wing but they still had a year before they actually were pages, which Lanna protested loudly about before Peter had shut her up.

Peter sighed and pushed his sister off of his bed before, rolling over and trying to get back to sleep.

"Peter!" Lanna called, shaking his shoulder again, "wake up. Breakfast starts in five minutes."

"No it doesn't," Peter mumbled from under his blankets, "go away, Lanna, I'm sleeping."

The awake twin got up from the bed, "Fine, don't get up. You're going to be late for breakfast." She skipped to door, "but just so you know, the hall will open in," she paused, "About thirty minutes."

Peter's eyes flew open, "That's not possible."

Lanna laughed at her brother's face, "It is. Look at your candles." Peter had two sets of candles in his room; they both had small spark stones in them. One sent off sparks every hour, so when a bell rang a small spark was sent off from the candle. The other one had the stones set every half hour, with the same principle holding true. The candles lasted for three days before another had to be lit. Lanna had some in her room too. And the flame had just reached the little notch that marked where a stone was on the half hour candle. Lanna giggled and left her brother franticly trying to wash, brush his hair, and get dressed all at once.

Paul and Kaile were already in the mess hall when Lanna walked in. "Today's the day," Lanna said sadly as she sat down. "It's the last day we can sit together for breakfast." Kaile nodded sadly while Paul just looked at his food.

"You act like it's the end of the world, guys," Jake sat down, "we'll see each other during practice."

Lanna glanced at the tall page, "Yeah, but that will be the only times we see each other. We can't eat together, you have classes after lunch that I can't be at, and afterwards you'll have homework that'll get you in trouble if you don't get it done."

"Yeah," Paul added, "and they'll have their own classes with the healers and Daine and Numair."

Kaile had her own input, "Chill out guys, it's just for a year, then we'll all be together again."

Peter joined at that point, "True, but by next year you'll be third year pages, and we'll only be in our first year."

"But you'll have me," a soft voice added.

The group of four whirled to look at the new voice, "Kash!" Lanna yelled, getting up and hugging her friend. Kash chuckled and hugged her back. Kaile got the next hug while the boys each took a handshake. Lanna and Peter had only known Kash for two weeks before he had left for two weeks but Lanna and him had gotten rather close in that short time. The fact that Lanna and Peter had spent every other night with his mom and him didn't hurt.

"I was only gone for two weeks guys," Kash said after he sat down with Lanna on one side and Kaile on the other. Peter was across from Lanna next to Paul. Jake sat next to Kaile.

"But you didn't tell us you were leaving in the first place," Lanna complained. "You just left no good byes or no note."

Peter looked down at the food he had grabbed, "I'm not good with good byes, even if it's just for a little while."

"Well don't do it again," Kaile said, "It worried us when you didn't show up."

Kash nodded his head, resigned to the fact that the girls would worry no matter what.

When everyone was done eating the group headed out to the practice courts. Since haMinch wasn't there yet they started warming up. Lanna and Peter showed the others some warm ups and stretches that they had done in the Isles. The twins had been introducing a few new stretches a day for the past couple weeks, and the pages had taken to liking them.

"You all warmed up?" the training master had finally come.

"Yessir," the group of eight- the two older pages had joined them- chorused. HaMinch nodded, sent staffs around, and set the drills for them to work on.

Soon enough the other pages began to arrive, Lanna, Peter, and Kash moved out of the rooms they had used during the summer and back into their old ones, those rooms had to be used by the new pages this year. Lanna didn't like it but she didn't have much of a choice.

"Please Your Majesty?" Lanna asked, well begged, not that she would admit it the king. The queen sat at the window, smiling because she knew that Jon would give into the young girl's request. Lanna may not know it, but in the couple months she had lived at the castle she had gotten a lot of people wrapped around her little finger.

The king groaned, "Fine," Lanna squealed.

Lanna ran around the desk and hugged the old man, "Thank you so much!" And then she ran out of the room.

"What have I done?" Jon asked himself as he dropped his head onto his hands.

Thayet giggled, "You just made a young girl very happy." Jon had allowed Lanna, Peter, and Kash to set up a few rooms for them. There was a small part of the palace that had a sitting area type thing with three rooms connected to it. Jon had just agreed to let the three nine year olds have it.

Lanna ran to the Own and Rider mess hall where Peter and Kash were eating. She skipped into the room and plopped herself next to Kash across from her brother. "He said yes!" she squealed, bouncing on her seat.

Peter and Kash looked at each other before Kash put a hand on Lanna's shoulder, "He did? Wow, did not expect that."

Lanna grinned, "Well of course you didn't."

After lunch Kel and Raoul gave the three- Kash was to join them in training when he was around- the day off, so they used it to move into their new rooms.

The sitting room had a few sofas, chairs, and a table. One wall was a window with glass doors. The doors opened out to an outdoor sitting area with a pond and small waterfall. There were three identical rooms that led off of the main room. They each had a king size bed, desk, weapon rack, and book shelf. Each bedroom had its own bathroom and closet. Lanna's was blue, Peter's green, and Kash's earth tones. The three were thrilled that they had their own little wing in the large palace.

When they were all set up it was almost time for dinner. Lanna led the way through the palace to the mess hall that they were going to be eating at for the year. They quickly got food and sat down at a table that no one else was at.

"I can't believe haMinch," Lanna complained to the two boys.

Peter shook his head, "Get over it Lanna. We can't do anything about it."

Lanna scowled at her brother, "We can, we'll work as hard as any page and we'll do so well that haMinch won't believe it." Kash chuckled quietly at the two siblings, keeping out of their argument.

When they finished eating dinner the three picked up their trays and handed them to the kitchen staff and headed out to Daine's and Numair's rooms. When Lanna, Peter, and Kash got to Kash's parents' rooms they walked in and stood at the door. "Mom," Kash called, "we're here."

Daine came out from her bedroom, "Good. Today we're going into the Royal Forest."

Lanna grinned and the boys groaned. Daine smirked.

"Now, today we're going to start shape shifting," Daine said and the three nine year olds grinned. "You're old enough now, and you've mastered your Wild Magic fairly well." Daine hadn't let Kash shape shift before, and the twins hadn't known if they could shift into anything besides their crow forms. If they could, however, they didn't know how, so the twins would need Daine's help with unlocking their full potential of the Magic. "This isn't how I learned, but Sarra learned better how I'm showing you now. I'll explain what we're doing as we do it," they sat in a circle.

Daine turned to Kash, "Close your eyes, and start meditating." Kash did as he was told, and the twins did the same. Once the four had called up their magic Daine spoke again, "Find your core, the very center of your Wild Magic," the three turned in. "See the ball of magic there? It'll be earth colors, browns and grays." Daine looked at the siblings and Kash, "Go into it."

Lanna entered the ball of, what looked like, brown fire. When she reached the center she looked out, and saw the world in its purest form. Strings of color ran through everything, but the strings were moving, like a flowing stream. And they were all connected, the grass green turning into the brown of the roots of a tree, the pink in the flowers turning into the dark green of the stems. "It's beautiful," Lanna said softly, though she didn't know if she said with her mouth or with her mind.

"Good," Daine continued, "now, I want you to think of a mammal. Think of how they look, how they move, how they feel, how they act."

Kash thought of a wolf, the one he pictured was brown, the same brown as his hair. Because of how young Kash was, in human years, the animal in his mind was still small, maybe two feet tall from feet to top of the head. He saw the wolf run, his front legs extending and hind legs being propelled out behind it. Kash watched the muscles of the animal as he ran around. He was fascinated by the entire thing.

Peter pictured a dog, a sheppard to be precise. The dog was, again, small because of his age. It was black and brown, mixed together. The dog was sitting, watching something. Its head turning, Peter watched how its fur moved in the gentle breeze. The dog's tongue was hanging out, panting in the summer heat and its ears twitched as it listened to the sounds around.

A horse was Lanna's pick. It was solid black with a white star on its forehead that was partially covered by its mane. It stood stock still, its mane and tail still a little fuzzy and not quite grown out. Then the horse reared, and Lanna watched its muscles ripped underneath its hide. It came down from its rear and started running, legs reaching forward and backward. Lanna watched in awe of what looked to be a year old filly.

"Now," Daine began again, "Imagine that you are what you picked."

Kash thought of his limbs changing, losing his thumbs, and growing fur. He thought of his nails growing and curving down. He thought of his head lengthening and a snout appearing. He thought of his spine adding more vertebrae, a tail. And he thought of his bones changing, becoming the skeleton of a wolf. Peter did mostly the same thing. While Lanna thought of becoming her horse, the slight differences being hooves, hair, =a different type of tail, and, of course, the height, and skeleton.

Daine took up speaking once again, "Leave your magic, and come back. Open your eyes."

Peter opened his eyes first, he was sitting, but he couldn't see colors anymore. His eye's had changed to those of a dog's. His face had elongated, and so had his teeth but wasn't completely canine. His whole body was like that, semi-human, semi-dog. Kash was more wolf than human, but he hadn't made the full change either. And Lanna was mostly human, her ears were pointed and her fingers had fused together, but she was definitely human. She scowled when she looked at herself, realizing that she hadn't changed. Kash looked at himself, and laughed.

"I look ridicules," he managed to get out between his laughter. Lanna smiled at him. Peter was inspecting himself.

Daine laughed, "You all did rather well." Lanna looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "You did, Sarra didn't even manage what you did."

"Okay, if you say so, Daine," Lanna rolled her eyes, "Now how do we change back?"

"Exactly how you got the way you are," Daine explained, "Imagine yourself as a human."

Five minutes late three fully human nine year olds sat on the ground. "Well that was fun," Peter said. Kash and Lanna laughed and the four stood up and left the clearing.

When they got back to the palace Daine sent them to their rooms with instructions to go straight to bed.

The four headed to their little wing. When they got there they collapsed onto the couches, all sprawled out. Peter moaned, the shape shifting had kind of hurt, even if it wasn't a full transformation. Lanna grinned at him, she didn't have that problem. The older sibling glared at his younger one. "Don't say a thing Lanna," Peter said.

"Wasn't going to," the girl replied, "but I can not wait until tomorrow." Peter and Kash groaned at that, tomorrow was the first day of page training, and the three nine year olds would be joining the older pages.

"Don't bring that up, Lanna. I'm trying to forget," Kash said.

Lanna got up from the couch, "Well forget while you sleep. It's time for bed, boys." Peter and Kash also stood up and said their good-nights before heading to their rooms for the night.

* * *

Lanna woke up to the sun shining in her window. She grinned when she remembered that page training started today. If there was one thing to say about the girl it was that she loved to prove people wrong. And she planned to prove haMinch wrong. Lanna lifted the blankets off of herself and got up. She went into her closet and changed into her training clothes for the day; a black pair of breeches, a tight black shirt with a loose blue shirt over. She brushed her hair back into a tight braid, but left the strap of leather with spikes on it out of it. The girl also brushed her teeth, and washed her face. When she left her room she put on her softest pair of leather shoes.

Peter and Kash were wearing the same thing when they exited their rooms, except Peter's over shirt was green and Kash's was red. The three walked to the Own and Rider mess hall, where they had decided to eat instead of the noble's dining room.

"Hello," Kel said when the trio sat down next to her and Dom.

Lanna grinned at the straight-faced knight, "Good morning Kel. How have you been?"

Dom answered, "Good, though we are leaving soon. It's time the Third Company got back on the road. We've been cooped up too long."

"So you won't be able to train us in the afternoons anymore?" Peter asked.

Kel shook her head, "Unfortunately, but Raoul and I will give you things too work on. And Lord Wyldon is here for awhile; his oldest granddaughter is being introduced to court. He has agreed to teach you while he is here. He'll be at training today for both the pages and for our afternoon lessons," she paused. "Speaking of which, you're going to be late if you don't hurry." Kash and Peter started scarfing down food but Lanna ate at a much slower pace. When they had all finished, Kash and Peter bouncing in their seats for Lanna, they dumped their trays and nearly ran out of the hall to the page training courts.

The three ran up the group standing just outside the fence, listening to the beginning of the year lecture from haMinch about safety and how important it was to train everyday and to put forth all of their effort. He glared at the three before stating that it was very important to be on time everyday. Lanna glared back while Peter and Kash tried to look properly ashamed that they were late. Paul, Jake, and Kaile smirked at the three and Lanna stuck out her tongue at them. Lanna, Peter, and Kash stayed at the back of the group while the training master continued to speak, then he had a fourth year lead them through stretching exercises while haMinch handed out staffs to the first year pages, the older pages had brought theirs with them after breakfast, the fourth years had swords strapped to their hips. And the third and fourth years had lances in with their saddles in the stable. Peter and Lanna also had swords, but they had also hidden daggers and throwing stars all over their bodies.

After the group had warmed up the training master told the older students to pair up and begin the drills they had learned last year while he took the first years. The twins stayed put, along with Kash. "What are you three doing?" haMinch asked in an annoyed voice. "Pair up, you know the drills." The three nodded and headed over to the older pages. Lanna paired with Kash while Peter paired with Paul and Kaile with Jake. After about an hour haMinch sent the first years to go begin hand-to-hand training with the older Shang Wildcat and younger Shang Panther.

The Shang Horse grinned at the group of pages, "Today we're going to see who kept up their training over the holidays." Some of the pages looked nervous, while others, like Peter, Lanna, Kash, Kaile, Paul, and Jake grinned. Grins they soon lost, while everyone except Peter and Lanna lost. "You're each going to have mock duals, with me." He smirked at the groans made by some of the group, "everyone take off your swords." Lanna had to turn her face away to keep from smiling as she unstrapped her sword from her waist. Peter didn't even blink, Lanna could keep her head on a mission, but give her something easy like hiding her daggers from her teacher and she would blow it. Peter glared at his little sister while he unbuckled his sword from his waist.

Nodding, the big Shang called each page up, there were only about five or six people in each year, not even thirty teens total. When all the pages were done, he looked to Kash, and beckoned him forward; Kash had trained with the pages last year when he was at the palace. Kash grinned and stepped forward, using his quick reflexes to dodge the Horse's first attack. This mock fight lasted longer than the others, Kash using his superior speed to dodge the blows made by the bigger man, getting his own quick hits in. After ten minutes, however, the Horse's experience won out. Peter was next, his fight lasted just as long, and he didn't resort to using his knives. Lanna on the other hand, well her turn was more exciting, but she didn't pull her daggers either, the twins had decided that they wanted as many surprises as possible when they started training for real. Besides, knights who used daggers and throwing stars were looked down upon as many thought that those weapons were for thieves.

The Shang didn't hold back on her, seeing as he had been taught by and with women. Lanna lasted longer than her brother and Kash. At first she simply dodged the attacks, but she did so with her hands behind her back, not moving till the last second, and barely moving when she did. Looking bored, Lanna finally attacked, she struck, in quick succession, four times over the Shang's heart. The man stumbled back, looking winded. (If you do what Lanna just did makes a person's heart skip a beat, well to some people, it doesn't work on me. It also knocks the wind out of people and hurts…a lot.) Lanna followed that with a quick, forceful kick to the side of knee. She knew that if she got to close to the Horse he would take her down so she didn't hook his ankles to trip him. Instead she slipped behind him and pushed a few pressure points in his back and neck that made he's arms and legs seize up so he couldn't move. She placed one hand on the man's throat, "Give up?" Lanna whispered.

The Shang Horse nodded as much as possible, "I yield," he said hoarsely. Slowly clapping began and spread through the ranks of pages, all looking at Lanna with new respect. Lanna nodded, and her hands glowed sapphire blue. She placed them on the Horse's back and let her Gift sooth the stiff muscles so that the man could get up and walk again. "Where did you learn that?" he asked the girl.

Lanna shrugged, "Here and there," she said vaguely. "I've had many teachers over the years, not all of them, shall we say, honest." Peter shook his head, that was about as much information that he had managed to get out of his sister when she first did that in front of him. Peter knew that Lanna was protecting someone. She would disappear for hours at a time and refuse to answer questions about where she had been. It had driven Peter and Nawat nuts, but Aly didn't worry and soon the two had gotten over it.

The Horse looked ready to question more, but the Shang Wildcat interrupted him, "Don't bother. She won't reveal anything. She doesn't have clearance." The old woman then turned to the first year pages, "Get back to work!" and added to Lanna in a whisper, "We must talk, I'll find you after lunch." Lanna nodded.

Soon the group moved to the archery fields. The twins pulled bags from their backs and removed a tube from them. Peter pulled a Tortallan bow from his tube, and Lanna removed the same. The twins easily strung their bows and stepped up to a station; where haMinch came through and placed twelve practice arrows in the metal hoop stuck in the ground.

"First years come over here," haMinch called. "The rest of you, when you hit the center twelve times in a row you may go."

One of the second years spoke up, "But sir, what about riding?"

The Training Master looked over at him, "Most of you just arrived, and your horses will use today and tomorrow to recover. After the two days we will start riding everyday." The pages nodded and turned to the targets.

Lanna was the first done, but Peter followed close behind her. They didn't leave though, instead they retrieved their arrows. Peter returned the arrows to haMinch and the two sat down. They waited as more and more pages finished, mostly oldest to youngest. Kash finished about ten minutes after the twins, and after he handed in his arrows the trio made their way back to the palace.

"Where did you learn that thing you did to the Horse?" Kash asked.

Lanna sighed, "I can't tell you. It's not that I don't want to, trust me I do, but I don't have the clearance to tell you everything, or anything for that matter." Lanna looked at the floor as she walked, "I'm sorry, but it's not my secret to tell."

Peter nodded, "That's more than I got out of you before, I'm still not happy you can't tell me. But I can deal with it." Lanna smiled at her brother.

"Alright Lanna," Kash added, "If it's not your secret to tell I can understand that."

"Thank you," she said softly.

When the three got to their rooms they separated, getting into the baths that were set up by the palace servants assigned to take care of them, until they hired their own of course. Peter, quick and efficient as always, was the first out of the water. He pounded on the door to Lanna's rooms, "Get out of the tub! We still have to eat and we have more training after that. Soak in the tub later."

Lanna groaned, "I'm getting out, hold your horses." A few minutes later Peter, Lanna, and Kash were on their way to the mess hall, Lanna gently poking bruises on her companions' arms. Peter finally had enough, "Either heal them or leave them, don't just poke!"

Lanna grinned, "But it's so fun." At Peter's glare she quickly pulled a jar from the pouch at her hip. She dipped two fingers into it and rubbed the bruise balm into Peter's arms before doing the same to Kash, who smiled gratefully at her. By the time she finished the three were standing in front of the mess hall.

The trio headed into the room and grabbed food. They sat down at their normal table and started eating. The boys dived head first into their food, but Lanna ate a more normal pace.

"You are not barbarians," Diane said as she walked up to the table, "do not eat like it."

Kash grinned at his mother, "but it's so much more fun."

Daine rolled her eyes, "Why couldn't I have two daughters? Why was did I have to have a boy?"

Kash and Peter laughed, but did slow their chewing. Lanna grinned, and pushed her tray away, "I have to get going."

Peter glanced at his sister, "What for? We just got here."

"I have places to be, people to see," Lanna said slyly with a sideways look to her brother.

"Ugh! Can't you just give a guy a straight answer?" Peter complained.

Lanna smirked, "Not in this case, sorry Big Brother." She stood up and gave her tray to the kitchen staff before she walked out. Peter groaned but turned back to his food.

The Shang Wildcat found Lanna running through combat drills with any weapon she had on her. The Wildcat sat back and watched the girl. She started with her sword and ran through the most complex drills she could with that before moving onto daggers and then throwing stars. Finally she started on hand-to-hand drills. Starting slowly and exaggerating each movement the nine year old ran through everything she knew before speeding up to the fastest pace she could manage. That was when the Shang made herself known.

"That was very good, Young One," she said. "You're fast."

Lanna lowered her head, "Thank you. How long were you watching?"

The Wildcat smiled, "Long enough to know."

"Know what?" Lanna asked.

"That you are indeed part of the Society of Roses."

* * *

AN: Well that's kind of a cliffhanger. Sorry. Reviews make me happy!


	8. Shape Shifting

AN: I'm sooooo sorry. I've been behind lately in my school work, and I lost all insperation (sp?). I hope to be writing more.

* * *

Lanna smirked at the Wildcat's remark, "Not a full fledged member yet. I was told by my teacher that she would come when she could."

"And I was told that the leader of the Rose was on her way, and I was to watch her student until she got here," the Shang replied, "but now I much ask. Why are you taught by the leader of the Rose?"

The girl sighed, "It was not something I did on purpose. When I was five I was attacked, by a group of young teens. They had watched me, knew who I was, and they had hoped I had gold on me." She stopped, and then continued, "There were five of them. I could, maybe, defend myself against one, but not five. She was walking by and heard the fighting. I was backed into a wall; the teens had formed a half circle around me. I don't remember much after that, one of them hit my temple, not hard enough to kill me but enough to knock me out." Lanna pushed a few loose hairs out of her face, "When I woke up I was lying on a couch, with her over me. The first time I saw her she was bandaging my arm." She turned her head and looked out the window, "At first I wanted nothing to do with her, thinking that she could be using me to get to my mom, but she was persistent." The young girl shook her head, "Just as she knew I would, I gave in. Once every week I would stay overnight with her, but everyday I would go practice. We would meet when I went out to do some shopping each day." Lanna smiled softly before giggling to herself, "We would dress up differently everyday. One day we were fancy ladies, the next some of the poorest thieves. I would play the slave to her, or be her daughter. We would run the shop below her house, and on the days we didn't another lady from the Rose would. She made me perfect the art of hiding in plain sight, gathering information, and fighting for I believe is right."

Eda smiled softly at Lanna, "Very good story, Child. I'm glad that our leader decided to teach you; maybe someday you'll tell me what happened to you during your time with her. There were rumors that she disappeared for a few months, and I'm thinking you were with her."

Lanna's features went completely white, her lips included, "I never speak of that time, I would rather forget."

* * *

Lanna, Peter, and Kash walked into Kash's parents' rooms that night. Diane watched them as the three sat cross-legged on the floor. "We're going out today to work on shape-shifting."

Lanna groaned, she still hadn't managed to shape shift. Peter smirked; he could shift into a dog and was currently trying to shift into some other animals. Kash could almost shift into a wolf. Instead of being completely horizontal he was more vertical, so he could walk on two legs. Lanna could only lengthen her hair and cover her body with soft, black hair.

The group walked out to the clearing in the Royal Forest. Peter immediately pulled off his shirt, shoes, and stockings. Kash folded his clothes after he to them off. But Lanna didn't bother with her clothes; she thought she would still have problems with her shifting. They all had extra breeches with them, and Lanna had an extra shirt.

"Lanna, you're going to try something else this time," Diane said, and then she whistled. Cinta came out of the trees, "You'll try to slip into Cinta's mind. I'll try to guide you, but I don't know how much I can help."

Lanna nodded, and sat cross legged on the forest floor. She closed her eyes and reached out, quickly finding Cinta's familiar mind. _Don't be scared, Lanna,_ Cinta told the girl in her mind. _Everything will be fine._

Lanna sighed, _If you say so Cinta._ She reached out, further than what she had to 'hear' what Cinta say in her mind.

"Don't use your magic," Diane told the girl, "Just meld with Cinta's mind, with her magic. If it works you should feel as if you are her, that you don't have a separate body."

Lanna nodded, her mind gently falling out of her mind and into her horse's. Cinta snorted at the feeling, _This is odd,_ she said, not complaining, simply stating. _It feels like water flowing over my mind._ Lanna giggled at Cinta's thought, but it came out as more of a snort, she had made it. Cinta's thoughts were her thoughts, _Cinta back off a little bit, I want to see if I can control your body._ Though not happy with the thought of someone else in charge of her actions, Cinta did as Lanna asked her.

Lanna picked up one leg, then stomped it down. _This is weird,_ she said. Carefully walking, she looked back at her body, _Really weird_. The horse-girl walking the clearing, getting used to the feel of four legs, and hooves instead of two arms with hands and two legs with feet. Gradually she went faster and faster so she was galloping circles.

After about a half hour Diane called out, "Lanna, time to return." Lanna let Cinta take over, and the horse laid down next to the girl's body. Lanna slowly separated her mind from Cinta's, taking her time so not to snap right out of one body then into another.

Lanna opened her own eyes, "Why does my body feel weird?"

Diane grinned, "When you meld to another animal's mind you body begins to change into that animal."

The girl looked down at herself, instead of hands and feet she had hooves, she was more laying flat than sitting cross-legged, her body had elongated and her hips and shoulders had switched from a two-legger to more of a four-legger stance. If the girl had stood up, she would have to stay on all fours, and her arms were just as long as her legs. It would look rather odd, to be honest. Her whole body was covered in soft black hair. And the hair going down her spine was longer, making a mane from her head to just above her shoulders, her neck and face had lengthened.

"Since you now know what it feels like to be a horse it you should be able to change yourself now. Or at least it will be easier," Diane stated, "I couldn't change at first either. This is how I first learned I could be a shape-shifter."

Lanna nodded, "That's great Diane. I have one question though." Diane nodded, "How do I change back?"

The woman laughed, "That would be much easier, just remember what you human form feels like. How it is to stand, how you move, what you see like, how you hear."

Lanna sighed, and closed her eyes. Slowly, oh so slowly, her body, head, and neck shortened, the hair disappeared, her arms shortened and her hands came back. Her feet regrew and her shoulders and hips straightened. She hissed, feeling bones pop and grind.

Diane grinned when Lanna opened her eyes again, "You didn't tell me it would hurt," she complained.

"You've had worse, I've seen your medical history," Diane stated simply. "Tomorrow I want you to try again, but it's late now, and you all need to go to bed." She said the last part loud enough so the wolf and the dog could hear her. The boys sat down and they rapidly transformed back into humans. They got dressed, and the four made their way out of the forest.

* * *

Lanna streaked through the halls, running quickly to the practice courts. She was late, very late. Eda had told her the day before that her mentor would be here today. In the few days from when Eda had found that Lanna was in the Society the two had become close. Eda had pushed the girl as far as she could, giving her impossible tasks to complete. Lanna thrived on these projects, but today the leader would be moving to Corus to continue to teach the young girl. And, though she would never admit it, the girl missed her mentor. But, let's face it, when your mentor and patron goddess is Gunapi the Sunrose, you don't get to see them much.

* * *

AN: Well, I didn't even see that one coming... It just came to me, anyone else write like that? I'm working on the next chapter right now...


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